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ENGLISH 

FOE  SECONDAKY  SCHOOLS 


BY 

W.  F.  WEBSTER 

Principal  of  East  High  School,  Minneapolis,  Minn, 


■  -  »  >  >  '  j>  j' 


BOSTON    NEW  YORK    CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,    I912,    BY   HOUGHTON    MIFFLIN    COMPANY 
ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 


Acknowledgment  is  hereby  made  to  the  authorized  publishers,  or 
the  rightful  owners  or  agents  of  the  copyright,  for  permission  to  use 
quotations  from  books  by  the  following  authors,  as  specified :  Ralph 
H.  Barbour,  The  Half  Back.  D.  Appleton  and  Company.  —  Phillips 
Brooks,  Letters  of  Travel.  E.  P.  Button  and  Company.  —  Charles 
Edward  Cheney,  The  Second  Norman  Conquest  of  England. — 
Richard  Harding  Davis,  Van  Bibber  and  Others.  Copyright,  1892, 
by  Harper  and  Brothers. — Arthur  Conan  Doyle,  Round  the  Red 
Lamp.  D.  Appleton  and  Company.  —  Arthur  Conan  Doyle,  Sir 
Nigel.  Doubleday,  Page  and  Company.  — G.  K.  Gilbert  and  A.  P. 
Brigham,  An  Introduction  to  Physical  Geography.  D.  Appleton  and 
Company. — Thomas  Hardy,  Wessex  Tales.  Harper  and  Brothers. 
—  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  Things  Worth  While.  B.  W- 
Heubsch.  —  Elbert  Hubbard,  Little  Journeys  to  the  Homes  of  Emi- 
nent Painters.  G.  P  Putnam's  Soijis  of  ?Iew  York  and  London. — 
David  Starr  Jordan  and  Vernon  S.  Kellogg,  Animal  Life.  D.  Apple- 
ton  and  Compan,\:  — '- A;  G.  NevcoiDer,  English  Literature.  Scott, 
Foresmanand  Company.  — E.  L.  Richards,  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
1894.  —  Henry  van  Dyke,  Harvard  Baccalaureate  Sermon  on  Salt.  — 
Caleb  T.  Winchester,  The  New  Essay.  The  Macmillan  Company. 

(Sbe  S^iterj^ibe  ^xt00 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUISETTS 
U   .   S   .  A 


PREFACE 

In  presenting  English  for  Secondary  Schools,  it  will 
serve  a  purpose  to  state  the  principles  that  have  guided 
in  the  making  of  the  book.  It  is  some  years  since  the 
study  of  rhetoric  gave  way  to  the  more  practical  study 
of  composition,  in  which  the  mass  of  rules  concern- 
ing diction  have  been  superseded  by  a  few  princi- 
ples designed  simply  to  secure  clearness  of  expression. 
Furthermore,  it  is  now  evident  that  no  mere  statement 
of  these  principles,  however  complete  and  accurate  it 
may  be,  is  as  illuminating  to  the  young  learner  as  a  clear 
exposition  of  how  successful  writers  have  done  their 
work.  Few  teachers  would  now  have  the  hardihood  to 
separate  the  study  of  composition  from  the  study  of 
literature;  and  all  teachers  know  that  the  best  in- 
structors in  English  composition  are  those  writers  who 
have  served  their  apprenticeship  and  have  been  accepted 
in  the  world  of  literature  as  masters  of  their  craft. 

A  wise  instructor,  then,  will  arrange  the  course  in  read- 
ing so  that  it  will  serve  two  great  ends :  first  and  prima- 
rily,  to  introduce  youth  to  the  best  that  has  been  said  and 
thought  by  the  English-speaking  people;  and  second,  to 
place  before  his  classes  examples  of  literary  skill  which 
shall  be  at  once  models  after  which  to  fashion  their  own 
work,  and  an  inspiration  to  ambitious  effort. 

Yet,  as  no  one  ever  attained  skill  in  any  art  by  a  study 
of  principles  or  of  models,  for  every  hour  given  to  study 
there  must  be  many  hours  devoted  to  practice.  Exer- 
cises, then,  are  an  important  part  of  any  book  on  com- 
position. And  exercises  should  not  be  general,  simply  to 
illustrate  a  principle;  for  all  teachers  have  learned  that 
to  arouse  mental  activity,  generalities  will  not  suffice. 

235350 


iv  PREFACE 

There  must  be  a  definite,  concrete  problem,  upon  which 
the  student  is  to  focus  his  energy  and  ingenuity.  Among 
these  concrete  problems,  none  are  so  sure  to  call  forth 
eager  activity  of  mind  as  those  which  have  an  immediate 
and  local  interest.  So  that,  while  the  exercises  given 
here  are  good  as  models  and  suggestions,  those  most  cer- 
tain to  bring  out  expression  that  glows  with  feeling  are 
the  ones  that  every  instructor  finds  ready  to  hand  in  the 
life  of  the  community  where  he  labors.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary, either,  that  every  exercise  be  performed;  for  exam- 
ple, many  pupils  will  not  need  all  the  exercises  in  the  first 
chapter.  It  is  unwise  to  compel  worthless  drudgery  for 
the  sake  of  uniformity. 

The  four  forms  of  discourse  —  narration,  description, 
exposition,  and  argumentation  —  are  taken  up  in  the 
order  named,  while  a  chapter  on  Letter- Writing  finds  a 
large  place  in  the  book.  But  preceding  all,  because  of 
fundamental  importance,  is  a  chapter  on  Sentences.  It 
is  often  the  case  that  pupils  reach  the  secondary  schools 
with  apparently  very  little  knowledge  of  a  sentence; 
yet  little  advance  can  be  made  in  composition  until 
the  primary  facts  about  sentence-formation  are  known. 
Bound  up  with  this  subject  is  that  of  punctuation,  for  a 
sentence  is  not  complete  until  its  words  are  correctly 
grouped  by  the  marks  of  punctuation.  Correct  sentences, 
correctly  punctuated,  should  be  the  first  object  of  the 
instructor  in  composition;  nor  will  the  time  ever  come  in 
preparatory-school  teaching  when  no  attention  need  be 
paid  to  this  fundamental  work  with  the  sentence. 

In  writing  this  book,  I  have  received  great  help  from 
the  teachers  in  this  city,  and  especially  from  teachers  in 
East  High  School.  Their  suggestions  have  laid  upon  me 
a  debt  of  gratitude  which  I  am  glad  to  acknowledge. 

W.  F.  Webster, 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I.  — THE  SENTENCE .      1-55 

Sentences  and  Not  Sentences 4 

Unity  of  Sentences 8 

Rules  for  Avoiding  Grammatical  Errors  ...  11 

Agreement 11 

Cases  of  Pronouns 16 

Verb  Forms 17 

Adjectives  and  Adverbs 26 

Prepositions 28 

Conjunctions 30 

Punctuation 33 

Final  Marks 34 

The  Comma .  34 

Other  Uses  of  the  Comma 40 

The  Semicolon 43 

The  Colon 47 

Quotation  Marks 48 

The  Dash 50 

Capital  Letters 51 

CHAPTER  II.  — FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE    .     .     .     .55-105 

Narration 62 

Order  of  Events 64 

Plot 66 

Principles  of  Structure 68 

The  Main  Incident 75 

What  Shall  Go  into  a  Story 81 


vi  CONTENTS 

Who  Shall  Tell  the  Story 84 

In  What  Order  Shall  the  Story  Be  Told      ....  87 

Movement  in  a  Story 95 

Some  Suggestions 98 

CHAPTER  III.— FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE  (Continued)  105-162 

Description 105 

Enumerative  and  Suggestive  Description    ....  108 

Selection  of  Material 115 

Arrangement  of  Material 125 

>  Paragraphs  in  Description 142 

Figures  of  Speech 151 

Words  in  Description 155 

CHAPTER  IV.  — LETTER-WRITING 162-202 

Parts  of  a  Letter 162 

Business  Letters 167 

Letters  of  Application 170 

Letters  of  Recommendation 174 

Letters  of  Introduction 176 

Letters  Ordering  Goods 179 

Letters  of  Complaint 181 

Letters  Requesting  Payment 183 

Letters  of  Friendship 187 

Society  Notes 193 

Folding  a  Letter 198 

The  Superscription 199 

CHAPTER  v.  — FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE  (Continued)  202-271 

Exposition 202 

Methods  of  Explanation       204 

Subject,  Theme,  and  Title 217 

Selection  of  Material        222 

•    Arrangement  of  Material 227 


CONTENTS  vii 

Mass 237 

•     Coherence 248 

CHAPTER  VI.— FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE  (Continued)  271-309 

Argumentation 271 

The  Proposition 275 

The  Brief       278 

I.   The  Introduction 279 

n.  The  Brief  Proper ...  289 

m.   The  Conclusion 299 

The  Presentation 301 

Principles  of  Structure 303 

CHAPTER  VII.  — FIGURES  OF  SPEECH     .     .     .     309-319 

CHAPTER  VIII.  — VERSE  FORMS 320-336 

APPENDIX 337-339 

The  Form  of  a  Composition 337 

Marks  fob  the  Correction  of  Compositions  .    .  338 

SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  ON  SELECTED   CLASSICS 

34(>t346 
INDEX 


ENGLISH 
FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  SENTENCE 

The  word  "  composition  "  is  derived  from  two  Latin 
words,  cum  and  ponere,  meaning  "  to  place  together."  A 
painter  composes  when  he  carefully  selects  and  ar- 
ranges his  objects,  so  that  they  make  an  effective  pic- 
tm-e.  A  lamp,  a  well-worn  book,  and  a  pair  of  heavy- 
bowed  spectacles  make  a  suggestive  picture;  and  one 
can  almost  see  the  white-haired  grandmother  reading 
the  sacred  book.  A  musician  composes  when  he  unites 
certain  harmonious  sounds.  A  boy  in  a  school  debat- 
ing club  puts  certain  reasons  together,  and  so  composes 
his  argument.  Any  one  composes  when  he  arranges  his 
thoughts  according  to  some  definite  scheme,  that  they 
may  produce  a  distinct  impression.  And  when  thoughts 
so  arranged  are  expressed  by  means  of  the  English  lan- 
guage, the  result  is  an  English  composition.  English 
composition^  then,  is  the  art  of  communicating  thoughts 
and  feelings  by  means  of  the  English  language. 

Now,  there  are  certain  rules  which  every  user  of  lan- 
guage should  follow.  Just  as  the  artist  has  to  avoid  certain 
combinations  of  colors  because  they  offend  the  eye,  and 
the  musician  must  avoid  some  combinations  of  sounds 
because  they  offend  the  ear,  so  any  person,  using  language 
to  communicate  his  ideas,  must  obey  the  rules  of  lan- 
guage if  he  wishes  to  please  people  by  what  he  says.  He 


^A,  ^ '  /  i  ;.■  c .; ' '. ' :  i  .'TUE> .  SENTENCE 

must  spell  correctly,  and  he  must  use  correctly  the  marks 
of  punctuation.  A  man  who  eats  with  a  knife  may  suc- 
ceed in  getting  his  food  to  his  mouth;  yet  certain  rules 
exclude  such  a  person  from  polite  society.  So,  in  com- 
position, it  is  entirely  possible  for  a  person  to  be  under- 
stood though  he  say  "  I  done  it,"  write  "  alright  "  in- 
stead of  all  right,  and  never  use  a  semicolon.  Still,  such 
a  person  could  hardly  be  called  cultured;  nor,  more 
important  still,  is  the  way  open  to  him  for  high  posi- 
tions in  business.  To  express  one's  thoughts  unmis- 
takably and  effectively,  and  in  a  way  that  is  pleasing, 
requires  absolute  obedience  to  the  common  rules  of  good 
composition. 

These  rules  are,  for  the  most  part,  those  already 
learned  in  the  study  of  grammar.  The  principal  ones  will 
be  repeated  here;  and  no  composition  containing  a 
single  violation  of  a  rule  of  grammar  should  be  considered 
acceptable  as  a  school  exercise. 

Subject  and  predicate.  A  sentence  has  been  defined 
as  a  group  of  words  expressing  a  complete  thought.  The 
expression  of  a  complete  thought  requires  two  things: 
the  name  of  the  thing  about  which  something  is  asserted, 
called  the  subject;  and  the  word  or  words  that  assert 
something  about  the  subject,  called  the  predicate.  The 
sentences  below  illustrate  the  kinds  of  predicate  most 
used.  They  are:  — 

1.  A  verb  alone. 

The  bird  sings. 

2.  A  verb  with  its  object. 

David  loved  Absalom. 

3.  A  copulative  verb  with  an  attribute  complement. 

Cherries  are  ripe.  The  crops  appear  good. 


SUBJECT  AND  PREDICATE  S 

4.  A  passive  verb  with  an  attribute  complement. 

Washington  was  called  Father  of  his  Country. 

5.  A  verb  with  an  object  and  an  objective  comple- 
ment. 

Out-of-door  life  is  making  the  world  strong. 

•  6.  A  passive  verb  with  a  retained  object. 
Paupers  are  denied  admission. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Separate  each  of  the  following  sentences  into  sub- 
ject and  predicate;  then  tell  of  what  the  predicate  is 
composed :  — 

1.  True  practice  is  a  struggle  to  realize  an  ideal. 

2.  He  lends  out  money  gratis. 

3.  The  grass  with  dew  is  sprinkled  bright. 

4.  For  us  all  some  sweet  hope  lies  deeply  buried  from  human 
eyes. 

5.  German  children  are  taught  reverence  for  authority. 

6.  A  white  wall  is  the  paper  of  a  fool. 

7.  Men  must  work,  and  women  must  weep. 

8.  Languidly  the  autumn  wind  stirs  the  forest  leaves. 

9.  I  will  feed  fat  the  ancient  grudge.  * 

10.  Tennyson  was  chosen  poet  laureate  of  England. 

11.  Conscience  does  make  cowards  of  us  all. 

12.  In  France  the  crown-prince  was  called  the  Dauphin. 

13.  Every  warbler  has  his  tune  by  heart. 

14.  The  Lord  my  pasture  shall  prepare. 

15.  All  nature  seemed  asleep. 

16.  Advice  was  given  him  in  plenty. 

17.  Still  the  wonder  grew. 

18.  You  should  be  taught  your  duty. 

19.  A  gentle  rain  refreshed  the  thirsty  flowers. 

20.  A  sharp  tongue  is  an  edged  tool. 

21.  To  be  busy  is  to  be  happy. 

22.  Every  one  considers  her  beautiful. 

23.  Studious  boys  make  intelligent  men.     ' 


4  THE  SENTENCE 

24.  Yonder  gleam  the  camp-fires. 

25.  The  child  finally  reached  home  exhausted. 

26.  The  violinist  played  me  a  waltz. 

27.  The  messenger  came  running. 

28.  Old  wood  makes  the  best  fire. 

29.  The  lightning  struck  him  dead. 

30.  By  working  faithfully  we  accomplish  our  ends. 

31.  One  is  never  too  old  to  learn. 

2.  Bring  to  class  two  sentences  illustrating  each  type 
of  predicate  given  in  the  list  above.  There  will  be  twelve 
sentences  in  all. 

SENTENCES  AND  NOT  SENTENCES 

The  verb.  In  each  of  the  sentences  in  the  exercise 
above  there  is  a  verb;  and  there  can  be  no  sentence 
without  a  predicate  containing  a  verb.  The  first  rule  to 
be  practiced  is  this :  — 
I.  Every  sentence  must  have  a  verb  in  the  predicate. 

Simple  as  this  rule  seems,  there  are  many  persons, 
not  always  children  either,  who  make  the  mistake  of 
using  other  parts  of  speech  for  a  verb.  Here  is  a  copy 
of  a  postal  card  sent  out  by  a  great  mercantile  house:  — 

Dear  Sir:  I  will  be  pleased  to  receive  one  copy  of  your  new 
booklet,  "To  Happiness  by  Trolley,"  ^s  mentioned  in  your 
recent  letter.  Same  to  be  forwarded  postage  paid  and  without 
cost  or  any  obligation  to  me  whatsoever. 

Sign  here 

Of  course  you  have  noticed  that  "will "  is  used  for  shall; 
but  the  carelessness  of  the  writer  is  most  evident  in  the 
last  group  of  words.  It  has  no  verb,  only  an  infinitive. 
It  is  not  a  sentence  and  should  not  be  substituted  for 
one.  Neither  phrases  nor  subordinate  clauses  should 
be  substituted  for  sentences. 


SENTENCES  AND  NOT  SENTENCES 


EXERCISE 

In  this  exercise  there  are  some  sentences  and  some 
groups  of  words  not  sentences.  Separate  the  true  sen- 
tences into  subject  and  predicate,  telling  what  elements 
make  the  predicate.  Do  not  give  the  modifiers.  In  the 
groups  of  words  that  are  not  sentences,  first  tell  what 
has  been  used  as  a  substitute  for  a  sentence,  and  then 
complete  each  group  as  you  think  it  might  read. 

1.  A  soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath. 

2.  Gibraltar  rock  stands  firm. 

3.  The  child  being  honest  and  giving  up  the  money. 

4.  The   tent-poles   being   set  and   the  camp-fires  burning 
brightly. 

5.  Cromwell  was  styled    the  Protector  of  The  Common- 
wealth. 

6.  And  many  other  interesting  things,  which  almost  every- 
one likes  to  read  about. 

7.  Shook  his  very  frame  for  ire. 

8.  The  temptation  having  proved  irresistible. 

9.  A  man's  manners  often  influence  his  fortune. 

10.  Five  years  to  be  imprisoned  at  hard  labor  for  the  one  bad 
act  of  his  life. 

11.  Faithful  are  the  wounds  of  a  friend. 

12.  Having  fought  bravely  for  their  country,  with  him  lay 
dead  on  the  battle-field. 

13.  Charles  I  was  made  prisoner  by  the  Roundheads. 

14.  With  its  wide  shore-line  fringed  with  trees. 

15.  The  child  was  asked  its  name. 

16.  Because  the  exciting  pictures  in  the  comic  section  of  the 
newspaper  teach  a  child  to  deceive  his  parents. 

17.  One  touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin. 

18.  My  books  feel  heavier  than  usual  to-day. 

19.  Which  was  by  far  the  simplest  way  out  of  the  difficulty. 

20.  Flowers  wither  at  the  north-wind's  breath. 

21.  When  one  is  swimming,  every  muscle  having  to  do  its 
duty. 

22.  The  shower  has  left  the  violet-bank  so  fresh. 


6  THE  SENTENCE 

Beginning  and  end.  Two  other  rules  that  you  have 
learned  in  grammar  are :  — 

2.  Every  sentence  must  begin  with  a  capital  letter. 

3.  Every  sentence  must  be  completed  by  a  period,  a  question 
mark,  or  an  exclamation  mark. 

Yet  errors  such  as  the  following  are  too  frequent  in 
school  compositions  and  letters  to  friends:  "One 
morning,  when  I  went  to  call  him,  I  found  feathers  at 
the  entrance  of  his  hole  he  could  n't  deny  it  he  was  a 
thief,  his  fox  nature  had  come  out  under  severe  tempta- 
tion and  he  died  an  unnatural  death." 

So  these  additions  must  be  made  to  the  list  of  substi- 
tutes for  written  sentences:  — 

Groups  of  words  begun  with  a  small  letter. 
Groups  of  words  ended  with  no  punctuation,  or  ended 
with  a  comma  or  a  semicolon. 

A  sentence,  then,  is  the  complete  expression  of  a 
thought  by  means  of  words.  If  a  group  of  words  is  in- 
complete, being  only  (1)  a  subordinate  clause;  (2)  a 
noun  modified  by  a  participle;  (3)  an  infinitive  or  gerun- 
dial  phrase;  (4)  a  predicate  with  no  subject;  (5)  a  group 
of  words  not  beginning  with  a  capital  letter,  or  (6)  a 
group  of  words  not  completed  by  a  mark  of  final  punc- 
tuation, it  is  not  a  sentence. 

EXERCISE 

1.  The  capital  letters  and  periods  have  been  omitted 
from  the  following  paragraph.  The  other  marks  of 
punctuation  are  correct.  Insert  capitals  and  periods  to 
make  complete  sentences :  — 

"look  out  for  a  fake  kick,"  muttered  story,  as  joel  fell  back 
the  opposing  line  was  quickly  formed,  and  the  signal  was 
given  the  rush  line  heaved,  joel  sprang  into  the  air,  settling 


SENTENCES  AND  NOT   SENTENCES  7 

with  a  crash  against  the  shoulders  of  chesney  and  murdoek, 
who  went  forward,  carrying  the  defense  before  them  but  the 
ball  was  passed,  and  even  as  the  yates  line  broke  the  thud  of 
leather  against  leather  was  heard  joel  scrambled  to  his  feet,  as- 
sisted by  chesney,  and  streaked  up  the  field  the  ball  was  over- 
head, describing  a  high,  short  arch  blair  was  awaiting  it,  and 
kingdon  was  behind  and  to  the  right  of  him  down  it  came, 
out  shot  blair's  hands,  and  catching  it  like  a  base  ball  he  was 
off  at  a  jump,  kingdon  beside  him  joel  swung  about,  gave  a 
shoulder  to  an  oncoming  blue-clad  rusher,  ran  slowly  until 
the  two  backs  were  hard  behind  him,  and  then  dashed  on 

Ralph  H.  Barbour 

2.  The  following  exercise  may  be  prepared  out  of 
school.  If  the  teacher  thinks  best,  it  may  be  divided 
into  two  assignments. 

MY   AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

I.  My  early  childhood. 

a.  My  name,  age,  and  birthplace. 

b.  Some  facts  about  my  father. 

c.  Some  facts  about  my  mother. 
n.  My  school  life. 

a.  My  first  day  at  school. 

1.  My  feeling  about  starting  to  school. 

2.  My  recollection  of  the  teacher;  the  school-room; 
the  other  children;  the  games. 

b.  The  teacher  from  whom  I  learned  most.  Some  of  the 
things  about  her  that  I  remember  best  —  her  appear- 
ance, her  way  of  saying  and  doing  things.  [Two  para- 
graphs might  begin  as  follows:  (1)  "I  can  see  her 
now,"  etc.  (2)  "  I  remember  one  lesson  I  learned,  which 
was  not  in  any  book.  It  was  one  day  when,  etc." 
Go  on  and  tell  it  fully  enough  so  that  a  reader  will 
get  the  whole  story.] 

c.  Where  I  was  prepared  for  high  school. 
in.  My  favorite  author. 

[Here  give  the  names  of  the  books  you  have  read  in 
the  last  year.  Which  books  pleased  you  most.^  Why?] 
IV.  The  character  I  admire  most. 

[Why  I  would  choose  to  be  like  this  person  if  I  could.] 


8  THE  SENTENCE 

V.  My  most  agreeable  occupation. 
VI.  The  games  I  like  to  play,  and  why  I  like  them. 
VII.  My  great  desire. 

[There  are  many  things  a  boy  or  a  girl  might  wish  to 
have  or  to  become.  Don't  be  afraid  to  tell  just  what 
you  desire;  and  perhaps  you  will  like  to  add  why  you 
desire  this  thing  above  all  others.] 

UNITY  OF  SENTENCES 

We  have  seen  that  sentences  may  be  defective  be- 
cause they  are  not  the  full  expression  of  one  complete 
thought.  But  in  actual  composition  many  sentences  are 
defective  because  they  include  more  than  one  complete 
thought.  A  little  child,  breathless  with  excitement,  tells 
her  mother,  *' We  heard  the  fire-engines  coming  down  the 
street,  and  we  left  our  game  of  hide-and-seek,  and  Jennie 
was  standing,  and  Joe  ran  so  fast  that  he  fell  over,  and 
we  found  that  the  fire  was  in  Murphy's  store,  and  we 
can't  buy  candy  there  any  more."  The  slender  thread 
that  binds  such  a  jumble  of  unrelated  incidents  into 
one  sentence  is  a  string  of  "  ands."  Older  persons  seldom 
write  as  poorly  as  this;  yet  every  one  must  watch  or  he 
will  find  himself  trying  to  crowd  two  or  three  unrelated 
thoughts  into  one  sentence.  Such  a  sentence  as  the 
following  is  not  uncommon:  "  Of  all  the  boys  that  were 
schoolmates  then,  there  are  only  you  and  I;  and  you 
were  a  good  swimmer."  The  one  complete  thought  was 
expressed  in  the  first  part  of  the  sentence;  the  last  part 
is  entirely  unrelated  and  should  not  be  included.  A  sen- 
tence is  the  complete  expression  of  one  thought,  not  more ; 
and  a  sentence  that  is  the  expression  of  just  one  thought 
has  one-nessy  or  Unity,  as  it  is  called  in  composition. 

A  compound  sentence  has  been  defined  as  a  sentence 
that  contains  two  or  more  independent  clauses ^  or  pro- 
positions. This  does  not  mean  that  a  compound  sentence 


UNITY  OF  SENTENCES  9 

contains  two  independent  thoughts.  Independent 
thoughts  must  be  expressed  by  independent  sentences. 
Yet  often  there  are  two  propositions  of  equal  importance 
that  really  belong  together,  because  together  they  ex- 
press one  thought;  as,  — 

The  night  is  calm  and  cloudless. 

And  still  as  still  can  be. 
And  the  stars  come  forth  to  listen 

To  the  music  of  the  sea. 

The  two  propositions  together  make  one  complete  and 
beautiful  picture.  Again,  the  proverb  tells  us  that  — 

The  wicked  flee  when  no  man  pursue th;  but  the  righteous 
are  bold  as  a  lion. 

Here,  by  means  of  a  contrast,  we  have  a  powerful  state- 
ment of  the  courage  of  a  righteous  man.  So,  too,  we 
meet  compound  sentences  in  which  a  choice  is  offered; 
as, — 

Give  me  liberty,  or  give  me  death. 

These  three  sentences  illustrate  the  commonest  rela- 
tions between  the  clauses  of  a  compound  sentence. 
They  are  the  relation  expressed  (1)  by  the  conjunction 
and;  (2)  by  the  conjunction  but;  and  (3)  by  the  con- 
junction or,  or  nor.  In  these  three  cases  both  clauses  aid 
in  the  expression  of  the  complete  thought,  and  so  com- 
pose one  sentence.  A  compound  sentence  in  which  both 
clauses  combine  to  make  the  thought  clear  has  Unity. 

Test  all  independent  clauses  of  a  compotmd  sentence  so  that 
you  may  be  sure  not  to  have  two  separate  sentences  joined  to- 
gether in  one  sentence.  Give  each  sentence  Unity  by  excluding 
all  clauses  not  directly  upon  the  topic. 

The  Unity  of  a  sentence  may  be  destroyed  in  other 
ways  than  by  the  addition  of  unrelated  independent 


N 


10  THE  SENTENCE 

clauses.  Notice  this  sentence:  "  James  bought  Tenny- 
son's Poems  with  the  first  money  that  he  earned  away 
from  home  in  a  country  store  which  had  everything  for 
sale  from  violins  to  needles,  many  of  which  had  lain  so 
long  in  the  dirty  show-case  that  they  had  become  rusty 
and  unfit  for  use."  In  this  sentence  the  writer  has  been 
led  astray  by  relative  clauses,  and  has  brought  in  ideas 
that  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  main  thought.  Unity 
has  been  destroyed  by  a  careless  use  of  straggling  sub- 
ordinate clauses. 

In  forming  a  complex  sentence,  keep  close  watch  of  all  de- 
pendent clauses.  Be  sure  that  they  do  not  lead  you  away  from 
the  main  topic  of  the  sentence. 

EXERCISE 

1.  The  following  sentences  are  simple,  complex,  or 
compound.  A  few  are  correct;  but  the  most  of  them 
have  at  least  one  clause  that  destroys  their  Unity.  Search 
out  the  offending  clauses,  and  tell  why  they  should  be 
omitted. 

1.  Cowards  die  many  times  before  their  deaths. 

2.  The  fur  which  warms  a  monarch  warmed  a  bear,  which 
is  a  very  dangerous  animal  for  one,  alone  and  unarmed, 
to  meet  in  a  forest. 

3.  Pay  not  heed  to  flatterers  and  never  put  off  until  to- 
morrow what  you  can  do  to-day,  even  if  it  means  eating 
the  new-baked  pie. 

4.  Good  temper  and  bad  temper  are  symptoms  of  good  and 
bad  moral  health;  but  to  be  well  is  better  than  to  be  sick. 

5.  Grandfather,  who  fought  in  the  Revolutionary  War 
and  was  used  to  Indians,  would  tell  us  bedtime  stories  as 
we  sat  around  the  blazing  hickory  fire  which  crackled  and 
sputtered  and  made  a  fine  light,  although  some  think  pine 
knots  give  a  better  light  when  you  have  no  candle. 

6.  Some  historians  admit  that  Milton  was  a  great  poet;  they 
,   deny  that  he  was  a  great  man. 


AVOIDING  GRAMMATICAL  ERRORS  11 

7.  Goldsmith  said  of  Johnson  that  he  had  nothing  of  the 
'       bear  but  his  skin. 

8.  Time  will  dull  the  sharpest  sword,  and  those  made  at 
Damascus  were  at  one  time  considered  the  best  steel. 

9.  The  moon  shines  bright,  for  Christmas  is  the  glad  season 
of  the  year. 

10.  Ruth  had  gone  to  Philadelphia  to  visit  her  aunt  who  gave 
her  a  curly-haired  wax  doll  which  was  larger  than  any 
the  other  little  girl  had  who  lived  in  the  same  street  where 
the  stones  were  made  of  granite  that  had  been  brought 
from  the  quarries  in  New  Hampshire. 

11.  Manners  are  the  happy  ways  of  doing  things,  and  we 
should  always  be  happy. 

12.  It  costs  little  to  be  polite,  and  how  much  good  we  could 
all  do  in  the  world  if  we  would  only  try. 

2.  All  have  entered  the  high  school  with  some  pur- 
pose. You  have  selected  a  course  of  study  that  will  take 
you  toward  the  goal  of  your  ambition.  Write  a  composi- 
tion setting  forth  three  reasons  why  you  have  chosen  the 
course  of  study  you  are  pursuing.  Your  composition  will 
have  four  paragraphs:  the  first  telling  your  aim  in  life; 
the  three  following  showing  how  the  work  you  will  do  in 
school  will  help  you  to  reach  the  end  you  seek.  Give 
your  best  reason  last.  Watch  very  closely,  and  guard 
against  writing  straggling  clauses.  Do  not  try  to  write 
long  sentences  or  long  paragraphs. 


RULES  FOR  AVOIDING  GRAMMATICAL  ERRORS 

AGREEMENT 

The  most  common  grammatical  errors  are  called 
solecisms,  the  use  of  constructions  not  English;  and  bar- 
barisms, the  use  of  words  not  English.  "  He  has  came," 
"  those  kind  of  birds  are  beautiful  **  are  disgraceful 
solecisms;  and  "  haint,"  "  enthuse,"  "  suspicion"  (verb 


12  THE  SENTENCE 

for  suspect)  are  words  that  put  the  stamp  of  ignorance 
upon  the  person  who  uses  them. 

The  solecisms  heard  most  often  are  those  which  arise 
from  a  lack  of  agreement  among  the  different  parts  of 
a  sentence.  The  first  rule  of  sentence-formation  is 
this :  — 

1.  A  verb  must  agree  with  its  subject  in  person  and  number. 

Yet  this  desirable  agreement  of  verb  and  subject  is 
often  broken  by  carelessness  or  ignorance.  When  a  boy 
says,  "  John,  as  well  as  the  other  boys,  were  fooled 
by  that  trick,"  he  has  lost  sight  of  the  real  subject, 
"  John,"  and  made  the  verb  agree  with  the  idea  of  a 
number  of  boys.  It  is  easy  to  be  led  astray  by  a  prepo- 
sitional phrase  denoting  a  number  of  objects;  as,  *'The 
box  of  apples  were  poor." 

Correct:  John,  as  well  as  the  other  boys,  teas  fooled  by  that 
trick. 
The  box  of  apples  vxis  poor. 

2.  Whenever  there  is  a  phrase  or  a  clause  modifying  the  sub- 
ject, and  introduced  by  with,  as  well  as,  or  in  addition  to, 
look  past  these  words  to  the  real  subject,  and  make  the  verb 
agree  with  it. 

Collective  nouns  often  lead  into  difficulties.  A  collect- 
ive noun  should  be  followed  by  a  singular  verb  when- 
ever the  idea  expressed  by  it  is  the  idea  of  a  single  group 
of  objects;  as, — 

In  Germany  an  army  of  a  million  stands  ready  for  action  in 
twenty-four  hours. 

If,  however,  the  principal  idea  is  that  of  a  number  of 
individuals  composing  a  group,  the  verb  should  be 
plural ;  as,  — 


AVOIDING  GRAMMATICAL  ERRORS  13 

A  vast  multitude  were  wandering  aimlessly  through  Hamp- 
stead  Heath. 

A  sentence  like  the  following  is  very  bad:  "School  is 
out,  and  a  crowd  of  children  is  going  to  their  home." 
Here  the  thought  is  of  a  number  of  individuals  compos- 
ing a  group;  and  the  verb  should  be  in  the  plural;  so 
should  the  noun  "  home." 

Correct:  A  crowd  of  children  are  going  to  their  home*. 

3.  If  the  principal  idea  expressed  by  a  collective  noun  is  that  of 
a  single  group  of  individuals,  the  verb  should  be  in  the 
singular.  If  the  principal  idea  expressed  by  a  collective  noun 
is  a  number  of  individuals,  the  verb  should  be  plural. 

Another  error  in  agreement  is  often  found  when  the 
noun  sort  or  kind  is  used  as  a  subject;  as,  "  These  sort 
of  dogs  are  very  useful."  Two  errors  ^cur  in  this  sen- 
tence: the  verb  is  plural,  and  the  adjective  modifying 
the  word  "  sort  "  is  plural.  These  mistakes  have  been 
made  because  the  idea  of  plural  number  is  introduced 
by  the  phrase  "of  dogs."  "These  sort"  and  "these 
kind,"  with  their  attendant  errors,  are  disgraceful  sole- 
cisms. 

Correct:  This  kind  of  bird  is  beautiful. 
That  kind  of  dog  is  useful. 
That  sort  of  man  is  the  salvation  of  a  nation. 

4.  Sort  and  kind  are  singular  nouns,  and  must  always  be  fol- 
lowed by  singular  verbs. 

Connected  with  this  mistake  in  the  verb  is  another 
often  heard  in  the  phrase  modifying  the  words  sort  or 
hind.  The  modifying  phrase  often  contains  an  indef- 
inite article,  a  or  an.  This  is  wrong;  for  the  word  follow- 
ing the  article  is,  in  the  sense  intended,  a  class  name, 
not  the  name  of  an  individual  thing. 


14  THE  SENTENCE 

Incorrect:  This  kind  of  a  book  suits  me. 
Correct:  This  kind  of  book  suits  me. 

Closely  allied  with  this  error  is  one  of  the  following 
type:  '*  Each  of  the  men  sing  well."  Few  would  write, 
"  Each  sing  well  ";  but  when  a  phrase  denoting  plural 
number  modifies  the  pronoun  eachy  it  is  easy  to  make  this 
mistake.  Like  each  are  the  words,  everyy  eiiher,  neither ^ 
every  one^  any  one. 

Correct:  Any  one  loves  his  dog. 

Every  one  of  the  miners  was  suffocated. 
Neither  of  the  mountains  is  high. 

5.  The  verb  must  be  singular  when  one  of  the  following  words 
is  its  subject:  each,  either,  neither,  every  one,  one,  any, 
any  one. 

6.  The  verb  must  be  singular  when  its  compound  subject  is 
composed  of  singular  nouns  connected  by  or  or  nor. 

Incorrect:  A  collie  or  a  Boston  terrier  are  the  best  dogs. 
^  Correct:  A  collie  or  a  Boston  terrier  is  the  best  dog. 

Errors  in  the  verb  are  frequent  when  the  subject  of 
the  verb  is  a  pronoun.  This  is  because  relative,  or  con- 
junctive, pronouns  have  the  same  form  in  both  singular 
and  plural  numbers;  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell  from 
the  form  of  the  pronoun  what  number  it  is.  The  clauses, 
"which  make  a  big  load,"  and  "which  makes  a  big 
load  "  are  equally  correct;  but  this  sentence  is  wrong: 
"  The  teamster  rolled  on  twenty  barrels  of  salt,  which 
makes  a  big  load."  The  antecedent  of  "  which"  is  not 
the  singular  noun,  "salt,"  but  the  plural  noun,  "  bar- 
rels." The  safe  way  is  to  look  further  than  the  subject 
pronoun,  back  to  its  antecedent,  and  to  make  the  verb 
agree  with  the  antecedent  in  number. 

7.  When  the  subject  of  a  verb  is  a  relative  pronoun,  the  verb 
should  agree  with  the  antecedent  in  number. 


AVOIDING  GRAMMATICAL  ERRORS  15 

EXERCISE  1 

Correct  the  following  sentences,  giving  the  reason 
for  each  change  you  make.  Always  give  rules  exactly 
as  they  are  written. 

1.  The  wood  of  the  doors  were  mahogany. 

2.  The  public  is  invited  to  visit  the  art  gallery. 

3.  These  sort  of  apples  come  from  Michigan. 

4.  Every  person,  whether  young  or  old,  have  their  faults. 

5.  The  mother-cat,  together  with  her  kittens,  lap  milk  from 
the  saucer. 

6.  We  was  all  over  to  Jane's  house  last  night. 

7.  Plain  Tales  from  the  Hills  were  written  by  Kipling. 

8.  More  than  one  person  has  said  the  lesson  don't  begin  there. 

9.  Those  skates  are  different  from  these  kind. 

10.  The  Christmas  box  came  when  you  was  at  school. 

11.  January,  as  well  as  December,  are  cold  months. 

12.  Under  the  table  is  his  hat  and  his  books,  and  he  don't 
know  where  they  are. 

13.  Nine  tenths  of  all  our  blessings  are  health. 

14.  Neither  of  the  girls  were  late. 

15.  It  don't  matter  much  if  a  person  refuses  to  tell  their  age. 

16.  I  don't  know  what  kind  of  a  man  he  is. 

17.  Two  hours  was  soon  spent  watching  the  game. 

18.  There's  no  two  ways  about  it;  he  don't  study  enough. 

19.  Neither  of  us  were  going  to  the^  matinee. 

20.  Quickness,  as  well  as  neatness,  are  needed  in  book-keeping. 

21.  Any  one  who  will  write  their  name  on  these  lists  are  en- 
titled to  a  badge. 

22.  Thirty  dollars  were  given  the  man  for  my  pony. 

23.  I  don't  like  those  kind  of  people  who  are  always  discon- 
tented. 

24.  Neither  algebra  or  Latin  are  my  favorite  studies. 

25.  "He  ain't  going,"  said  he.  "You  see  if  he  don't,"  said  I. 

26.  If  eaeh  of  our  lessons  are  carefully  prepared  they  soon  will 
not  seem  diflBcult. 

27.  Every  child  should  keep  their  desk  neat  and  clean. 

*  Exercises  containing  errors  to  be  corrected  may  be  used  or  omitted,  as 
the  instructor  thinks  wise. 


16  THE  SENTENCE 

28.  In  front  of  the  inn  was  a  wide  spreading  elm-tree  and  a 
sign-post. 

29.  Every  one  of  the  children  were  told  to  go  home  and  wash 
their  face  and  hands. 

30.  The  gypsy  said  that  if  any  one  would  tell  the  date  of  their 
birth  she  would  tell  their  fortune. 

31.  What  kind  of  a  hat  are  you  going  to  buy? 

CASES  OF  PRONOUNS 

The  English  language  is  but  slightly  inflected;  yet 
there  are  changes  enough  in  the  forms  of  words  to  be  the 
cause  of  a  number  of  common  errors  in  sentences. 
Scarcely  any  pupil  that  reaches  the  high  school  makes 
a  mistake  in  the  plural  of  nouns.  A  few  foreign  words, 
such  as  cherubim,  phenomena,  data,  etc.,  may  give 
trouble;  possibly  also  a  few  words  ending  in  o,  /,  or  y. 
But,  in  general,  the  plural  forms  of  nouns  are  used  cor- 
rectly. So,  too,  is  the  possessive  case  of  nouns.  The  pupil 
knows  when  to  use  an  apostrophe  and  5,  and  when  to 
use  the  apostrophe  alone.  How^ever,  when  he  uses  the 
cases  of  pronouns,  he  drops  into  the  current  language  of 
the  street,  and  talks  like  a  barbarian.  Without  shame, 
he  announces,  **  Him  and  me  built  the  air-ship  ";  "That 
surely  was  him";  "He  invited  you  and  I";  "The 
choice  is  between  you  and  I  ";  "  He  is  taller  than  me." 

Usually  he  knows  better  than  to  use  any  of  these  in- 
correct constructions.  He  can  correct  sentences  con- 
taining such  vulgarisms,  and  can  give  the  reasons  for 
the  changes;  he  knows  the  following  rules:  — 

1.  The  subject  of  a  sentence  is  in  the  nominative  case,  and 
must  be  the  nominative  form  of  the  pronoun. 

Correct:  He  and  I  built  the  air-ship. 

2.  The  attribute  complement  of  a  verb  is  in  the  nominative 
case,  and  should  be  the  nominative  form  of  the  pronoun. 

Correct:  That  surely  was  he. 


VERB  FORMS  17 

3.  The  object  of  a  verb  or  a  preposition  is  in  the  objective  case, 
and  should  be  the  objective  form  of  the  pronoun. 

Correct:  He  invited  you  and  me. 

The  choice  lies  between  you  and  him. 

4.  No  apostrophe  should  be  used  in  the  possessive  form  of  a  per- 
sonal or  a  relative  pronoun. 

Correct:  The  book  is  hers. 

The  story  of  its  destruction  is  well  known. 

"Her's"  "it's,"  their's,"  and  "who's"  are  quite  as 
incorrect  as  "hi's."  They  all  are  wrong. 

Though  the  student  knows  these  rules,  too  often  he 
uses  the  language  of  the  illiterate.  There  is  but  one 
way  to  overcome  these  bad  habits.  The  correct  form 
must  be  said  over  and  over  until  incorrect  forms  are 
offensive. 

EXERCISE^ 

Repeat  the  following  until  you  say  them  naturally, 
without  thinking  about  them :  — 


It  is  7. 

It  is  n't  /. 

He  is  larger  than  I. 

It  is  he. 

It  is  n't  he. 

He  is  taller  than  she. 

It  is  she. 

It  is  n't  she. 

She  is  taller  than  they. 

It  is  we. 

It  is  n't  we. 

He  is  stronger  than  we. 

It  is  they. 

It  is  n't  they. 

I  am  larger  than  he. 

Between  you  and  me.  He  called  you  and  me. 

Between  him  and  her.  He  called  him  and  her. 

Between  them  and  ua.  He  called  them,  and  us. 

VERB  FORMS 

The  verb  is  the  most  inflected  part  of  speech;  yet, 
outside  the  violations  of  agreement  already  given,  mis- 

1  To  the  instructor:  —  If  there  are  in  the  community  other  ungrammati- 
cal  Idioms  that  the  children  are  using,  extend  this  list  to  include  them. 
These  sentences  should  be  repeated  daily  until  the  errors  they  are  intended 
to  correct  are  never  heard. 


18  THE  SENTENCE 

takes  in  the  forms  of  the  verb  are  comparatively  few. 
The  principal  mistakes  are:  — 

The  substitution  of  "  ain't  "  for  am  not  or  are  not,  and 
"  don't  "  for  does  not; 

Mistakes  in  the  use  of  zoill  and  shall; 

Mistakes  in  the  use  of  the  tenses  and  modes  of  verbs; 

The  interchange  of  the  past  indicative  form  for  the  per- 
fect participle  form. 

Cultured  persons  never  use  the  word  "  ain't ";  the 
dictionary  says  that  it  is  used  by  illiterate  people. 
Don't  is  a  contraction  of  do  not;  and  it  is  correct  to  use 
it,  except  in  the  third  person,  singular  number.  The 
proper  form  for  the  third  person,  singular,  is  does  n't. 
Both  these  words,  "  ain't  "  and  "  don't,"  show  the  ef- 
fect of  laziness  upon  a  language.  It  is  easier  to  use  one 
form  for  all  places  than  to  think  which  form  should  be 
used  in  a  particular  place. 

The  incorrect  use  of  shall  and  will  is  due  not  to  lazi- 
ness so  much  as  to  ignorance.  The  principal  rules  that 
guide  in  the  use  of  these  words  are  given  below:  — 

1.  In  declarative  sentences,  shall  is  used  to  denote  future 
time  when  the  subject  is  in  the  first  person. 

Correct:  I  shall  go. 

We  shaU  not  go. 

2.  Shall  may  be  used  to  express  compulsion,  when  the  subject 
is  in  the  second  or  the  third  person. 

Correct:  You  shall  do  it. 
They  shall  do  it. 

3.  In  declarative  sentences,  will  is  used  to  express  future 
•     time  when  the  subject  is  in  the  second  or  the  third  per- 
son. 

Correct:  She  wW  go. 

They  vriU  sing. 


VERB  FORMS  19' 

4.  WUl  is  used  to  express  (i)  determination,  or  (2)  promise, 
when  the  subject  is  in  the  first  person. 

Correct:  I  vdll  do  it,  in  spite  of  opposing  conditions. 
Yes,  indeed,  we  will, 

5.  Will  is  sometimes  used  in  giving  a  courteous  command. 
Correct:  You  mil  be  at  the  office  at  nine  o'clock. 

6.  In  asking  a  question,  the  same  verb,  shall  or  willt  must  be 
used  that  is  expected  in  the  answer  to  the  question. 

Correct:  Will  you  be  there?  I  mil.  (Promise.) 

(S/ia// you  be  there?  I  shall.    (Simple  future  event.) 

7.  Should  and  would  generally  follow  the  rules  already  given 
for  the  use  of  shall  and  will. 

But 

a.  Should  is  sometimes  used  to  denote  duty. 
Correct  :  I  should  make  this  gift. 

b.  Would  is  sometimes  used  to  denote  (i)  desire  or  intention; 
and  (2)  a  customary  action. 

Correct:  He  would  help  (meaning,  He  wishes  to  help). 

She  would  hurry  through  her  work  (meaning.  She 
was  accustomed  to  hurry  through  her  work). 

EXERCISE 

Fill  the  blanks  with  the  proper  words,  shall  or  will, 
should  or  would.  Give  the  reason  for  your  choice  in  each 
case.  Sometimes  either  word  will  be  correct.  In  such 
a  case  tell  the  difference  in  the  meaning  arising  from 
the  use  of  the  different  words. 

1.  I  (shall,  will)  not  be  afraid. 

2.  I  (shall,  will)  refuse  to  admit  him  after  such  discourtesy. 

3.  They  (shall,  will)  go  at  the  appointed  time. 

4.  Chicago's  motto  is  I  (shall,  will). 
6.  (Shall,  Will)  I  go  if  it  rains? 


20  THE  SENTENCE 

6.  (Shall,  Will)  you  be  in  time?  Answer:  I  (shall,  will). 

7.  (Shall,  Will)  you  be  on  time  to  take  the  train?  Answer:  I 
(shall,  will). 

8.  Norah,  you  (shall,  will)  lock  the  kitchen  window  every 
night. 

9.  I  (should,  would)  be  more  careful  with  my  books. 

10.  Rover  (should,  would)  carry  the  package  home. 

11.  The  men  (should,  would)  sit  smoking  and  drawing  out 
long  stories  about  the  war. 

12.  Kate  said,  "I  (shall,  will)  be  pleased  to  accept  your  in- 
vitation." 

13.  The  bird  (should,  would)  chirp  until  it  was  fed. 

14.  Florence  (shall,  will)  go  to  College  next  year. 

15.  To-morrow  the  public  (shall,  will)  know  who  is  elected. 

16.  Joseph  (should,  would)  attend  to  business  better  if  he 
cares  to  succeed. 

17.  Grandmother  (should,  would)  look  over  her  spectacles 
and  smile  at  us. 

18.  (Shall,  Will)  you  take  tea  with  us?  Answer:  I  (shall,  will). 

19.  The  horses  (shall,  will)  not  go  out  again  in  the  storm. 

20.  (Should,  Would)    you    care  to  visit   Paris  each    year? 
Answer:  I  (should,  would). 

21.  I  (shall,  will)  perish  in  this  snow,  and  nobody  (shall,  will) 
help  me. 

22.  What  (shall,  will)  it  profit  a  man  to  gain  the  whole  world? 

23.  The  leader  said,  "You  (shall,  will)  see  that  everything  is 
made  ready  for  our  coming." 

24.  (I  shall,  will)  do  or  die. 

25.  (Shall,  Will)  you  spend  the  winter  in  Florida? 

26.  (Should,  Would)  he  go  without  asking  his  mother? 

27.  This  rock  (shall,  will)  fly  from  its  firm  base  as  soon  as  I. 

28.  David,  in  his  grief,  (should,  would)  have  died  for  Absalom. 

29.  The  poor  children  of  the  city  (should,  would)  be  looked 
after. 

30.  We  (shall,  will)  know  each  other  there. 

31.  General  Grant  said,  "I  (shall,  will)  fight  it  out  on  this  line 
if  it  takes  all  summer." 

32.  If  I  (would,  should)  go,  I  (would,  should)  have  to  take 
the  child  with  me. 

33.  How  (would,  should)  you  do  it  ?    I  value  your  advice 
and  (shall,  will)  follow  it. 


VERB  FORMS  21 

8.  May  and  might  should  be  used  to  denote  pennission  or 
possibility;  can  and  could  should  be  used  to  denote  power  or 
ability. 

Correct:  She  may  read.  I  told  him  he  mig'^^  go.  (Permission.) 
It  may  rain.  You  might  fall.    (Possibility.) 
He  can  play  a  violin.   You  could  do  it  easily,  if 
you  would.   (Ability.) 

9.  Never  use  an  auxiUary  verb  before  the  verb  ought. 

"  Had  ought "  is  a  common  error.  While  no  one 
says  "  have  ought "  or  "  will  have  ought,"  "  had 
ought  "  is  all  too  common.  Yet  there  is  no  more  reason 
for  one  than  for  the  other.  Ought  to  walk  and  ought  to 
have  walked  are  examples  of  the  only  forms  there  are  of 
this  verb. 

Here  attention  can  best  be  called  to  Another  expres- 
sion that  often  oflfends  good  taste.  "  Should  of  come  " 
and  "  had  'f  gone  "  are  frequently  heard,  though  seldom 
seen  written.  In  both,  the  word  "of,"  or  the  abbreviated 
"  'f,"  is  used  for  the  auxiliary  verb  have.  While  we  may 
have  the  form  should  have  gone,  we  can  never  have 
"  had  have  gone  "  or  "  had  of  gone." 

10.  Never  make  0/  part  of  a  verb  phrase. 

No  more  discouraging  sound  ever  reaches  a  teacher's 
ear  than  "  I  done  it,"  *'  I  could  have  went."  Although 
"  He  drunk  the  water,"  and  "  The  problem  was  proven  " 
may  be  quite  as  bad,  they  do  not  seem  so  offensive. 
Below  are  given  the  three  principal  tenses  of  fifty 
common  verbs,  in  the  third  person  singular:  — 


PRESENT  TENSE 

PAST  TENSE 

PAST  PERFECT  TENSE 

awakes 

awoke 

has  awaked 

bears 

bore 

has  borne 

beats 

beat 

has  beaten 

begins 

began 

has  begun 

22 


THE  SENTENCE 


PRESENT  TENSE 

PAST  TENSE 

PAST  PERFECT  TENSE 

bids 

bade 

has  bidden 

blows 

blew 

has  blown 

breaks 

broke 

has  broken 

bursts 

burst 

has  burst 

catches 

caught 

has  caught 

chooses 

chose 

has  chosen 

climbs 

climbed 

has  climbed 

comes 

came 

has  come 

deals 

dealt 

has  dealt 

dives 

dived 

has  dived 

does 

did 

has  done 

draws 

drew 

has  drawn 

drinks 

drank 

has  drunk 

drives 

drove 

has  driven 

drowns 

drowned 

has  drowned 

eats 

ate 

has  eaten 

falls 

fell 

has  fallen 

flies 

flew 

has  flown 

freezes 

froze 

has  frozen 

gets 

got 

has  got 

gives 

gave 

has  given 

goes 

went 

has  gone 

grows 

grew 

has  grown 

hangs  (to  kill) 

hanged 

has  hanged 

hangs 

hung 

has  hung 

heats 

heated 

has  heated 

hurts 

hurt 

has  hurt 

knows 

knew 

has  known 

lays 

laid 

has  laid 

lies 

lay 

has  lain 

ought 

ought 

■• 

raises 

raised 

has  raised 

rides 

rode 

has  ridden 

rings 

rang 

has  rung 

rises 

rose 

has  risen 

runs 

ran 

has  run 

sees 

saw 

has  seen 

sings 

sang 

has  sung 

sinks 

sank 

has  sunk 

sets 

set 

has  set 

VERB  FORMS 

PRESENT  TENSE 
sits 
steals 

PAST  TENSE                PAST  PERFECT  Tl 
sat                            has  sat 
stole                          has  stolen 

swims 

swam 

has  swum 

swings 
takes 
teaches 
wakes 

swung 

took 

taught 

woke  —  waked 

has  swung 
has  taken 
has  taught 
has  waked 

wrings 
writes 

wrung 
wrote 

EXERCISE 

has  wrung 
has  written 

S3 


1.  If  you  have  need  of  it,  repeat  the  preceding  list 
of  correct  forms  until  the  incorrect  forms  sound  wrong 
to  you.  If  you  have  other  incorrect  forms  in  your  speech, 
overcome  them  in  the  same  way.  It  is  only  by  constant 
repetition  of  the  correct  forms  that  you  can  be  rid  of 
these  common  errors  in  speech. 

2.  Explain  the  meaning  of  each  of  the  following 
forms,  and,  with  the  meaning  in  mind,  repeat  the  form 
until  you  are  sure  of  it:  — 


I  shall  go. 
You  will  go. 
He  will  go. 
We  shall  go. 
They  will  go. 


Shall  you  go? 
Will  she  go? 
Will  it  go? 
Will  they  go? 
Shall  we  go? 


Shan't  we  go? 
Won't  you  go? 
Won't  she  go? 
Will  they  not  go? 
Sha'n't  we  go? 


May  we  go? 
May  they  go? 
I  may  go. 
You  may  go. 


Ought  I  to  go? 

Ought  you  to  go? 

Ought  they  to  have  gone? 

He  ought  to  go. 

She  ought  to  have  gone. 


3.  In  the  following  story,  blanks  have  been  left,  each 
to  be  filled  with  some  form  of  one  of  the  verbs  given  in 
the  list  above.     Copy  the  story  carefully,  spelling  all 


24  THE  SENTENCE 

the  words  correctly,  putting  the  marks  of  punctuation 
in  properly,  and,  in  each  blank,  inserting  the  verb  that 
you  think  was  intended  for  it . 

A  TRIP  IN  A  BALLOON 

John  Edgerton early  that  morning  on  the  farm.   The 

sun  had  but  not  before  John,  for  he his  alarm- 
clock  to  call  him  and  he at  its  first  summons.   Indeed,  he 

had awake  a  long  time  listening  for  it.    John  was 

to  the  Fair.  He  had in  the  weekly  newspaper  the  an- 
nouncement that  a  great  balloon  would  at  the  Fair 

grounds  that  day,  and  he  was .    He  had his  boots 

when  he  heard  old  Molly,  the  cow, her  voice  for  him  to 

to  feed  her.  She  had to  feel  hungry.   She  was 

her  best  to  let  John  know  it.  He  had the  cows  to  pas- 
ture, had  the  milk  away,  and  had  his  breakfast, 

while  the  rest  of  the  family  still asleep.   How  long  they 

would  there  John  did  not  know.    He  a  glass  of 

milk, that  his  clothes well  and  then out  down 

the  road.    He a  merry  tune,  and  every  now  and  then 

into  a  happy  laugh.    He  even a  short  distance,  so 

eager  was  he  to his  day's  sightseeing.   I  believe  he  would 

have ,  had  he  possessed  wings.  The  day  had well 

for  John. 

John  had many  miles  when  at  last  he to  the  Fair. 

The  first  thing  he was  the  monster  balloon.    He 

over  to  the  place  where  it on  the  ground,  waiting  to  be 

filled  with  the  gas  which  would it  in  the  air.   Men  had 

the  pegs  into  the  ground  to  which  the  guy  ropes  were 

tied  firmly.  The  balloon  could  not away.  The  aeronaut 

about  giving  hurried  orders.    A  crowd  had  near. 

They,  too,  had to  the  Fair  to the  great  balloon 

that  day. 

At  length  the  balloon  had in  all  the  gas  it  could  hold. 

It itself  slowly  until  the  basket  car,  attached, level 

on  the  ground  below  it.    The  aeronaut  wished  some  one  to 

with  him.    His  voice out  high  above  the  murmurs 

of  the  curious  crowd.   "Who  wishes  to  say  he  has like  a 

bird.^"  was  his  incessant  cry.    John his  hand  to  attract 

the  man's  attention,  for  the  babble,  which  had ,  had 


VERB  FORMS  26 

his  words  of  inquiry  "How  much?"   But  the  man him 

and  glibly out  "Three  dollars,  my  friend,  and  cheap  at 

that."    "I to  do  it,"  thought  John.    "What  would  the 

folks  at  home  say,  if  they  could me through  the 

air.'*  I  can  say  I  have it,  at  least.  I  have the  money 

with  me,"  and  he the  sum  asked  for  in  the  man's  hand. 

Everything  was  now  ready  for  the  balloon  to .    The 

car perfectly  still.  A  great  fear  — —  upon  John,  but  he 

his  foot  inside  the  basket  and in.  The  moment . 

The  balloon  was free.  They rapidly  from  the  earth. 

The  wind them  swiftly  on  their  course.  John on  the 

floor  of  the  car  for  a  while.  Then  he flat  on  the  bottom 

of  the  car.   The  cold  air his  finger  tips.   He  had 

the  crowd  cheer  as  they  first but  now  he  could  not 

them.  John himself  enough  to  look  over  the  rim  of  the 

car.  Tiny  black  things  with  dots  of  white  for  faces about 

below  on  the  ground.    His  head at  the  sight.   He 

back  again  and  soon asleep. 

The  sun  had in  the  west  when  John  awoke.  How  far 

they  had ,  how  fast  they  had ,  and  over  what  places 

they  had ,  John  did  not  know.  He  peeped  over  and 

that  they  had near  the  earth  once  more.    He  was  glad 

they  neither  had into  the  sea  nor  had into  a  rain- 
cloud,  when  he  felt  a  bump,  bump,  bump,  and  rip the 

distended  silken  sides  of  the  gas  bag  overhead.  A  sharp  tree- 
top  had through  into  the  inflated  chamber  of  the  bal- 
loon.   The  basket  with  its  contents like  a  duck  straight 

for  the  ground,  while  the  silk  bag on  the  topmost  branches 

of  the  tree. 

John  climbed  out  of  the  mass  of  wreckage;  and that 

they  had right  in  his  own  back  pasture.   His  family  had 

the  whole  happening.    They  into  a  hearty  laugh 

when  they it  was  John  and  that  he  had  not .   "The 

crazy  thing ,"  said  the  disgusted  John  in  explanation. 

** in,"  they  said,  "and your  supper.   We  have 

ours,  but  the  stove  is up  and  it  won't  take  long  to  warm 

your  supper.    And  you  have in  time,  too,  to  do  up  the 

evening  chores."   Just  then  old  Molly,  down  by  the  bars 

her  head  and  mooed. 

4.  Write  an  account  of  "  The  First  Time  I  Made  a 


26  THE  SENTENCE 

Cake,"  in  which  you  use  some  form  of  each  of  the  fol- 
lowing verbs: — 

set,  sit,  raise,  rise,  heat,  eat,  fall,  ought,  begin,  do,  run,  lay, 
see. 

Or,  you  may  choose  this  subject,  if  better  suited  to 
your  fancy,  **  How  I  Learned  to  Skate  (or  Swim)." 
Use  some  form  of  each  of  the  following  verbs:  — 

lay,  lie,  dive,  swim,  rise,  raise,  ought,  hang,  sing,  go,  fall, 
wring,  freeze. 

Imagine  a  little  incident  for  this,  if  you  have  had  no 
real  experience.  The  verbs  themselves  almost  suggest 
what  takes  place. 

ADJECTIVES  AND  ADVERBS 

There  are  but  few  mistakes  made  in  the  use  of  ad- 
jectives and  adverbs.  The  following  rules  cover  most 
of  the  errors  that  are  at  all  common:  — 

1.  To  denote  an  attribute  of  the  subject,  use  an  adjective,  not 
.  an  adverb. 

Adverbs  are  often  incorrectly  used  after  such  copula- 
tive verbs  as  appears,  looks,  seems,  feels,  tastes,  smeUs, 
sounds,  etc. 

Incorrect:  I  feel  badly. 

The  flower  smells  sweetly. 
The  dress  looks  finely. 
Correct:  I  feel  bad. 

The  flower  smells  sweet. 
The  dress  looks  fine. 

2.  Never  use  adjectives  where  adverbs  should  be  used. 

The  words  most  often  mistreated  are  good,  bad,  real, 
awful,  some,  and  most.  The  words  that  should  be  used 
are  well,  badly,  really,  very,  somewhat,  and  almost. 


ADJECTIVES  AND  ADVERBS  27 

Incorrect:  He  reasons  good. 

The  train  had  most  stopped. 
He  made  an  awful  good  address. 
Correct:  He  reasons  well. 

The  train  had  almost  stopped. 
He  made  a  very  good  address. 

3.  Never  use  the  pronoim  "  them  "  for  the  adjective  "  those." 

Incorrect:  James  saw  them  boys. 
Correct:  James  saw  those  boys. 

4.  When  two  objects  are  compared,  use  the  comparative  de- 
gree of  the  adjective. 

Incorrect:  Which  is  the  tallest,  James  or  I? 
Correct:  Which  is  the  taller,  James  or  I? 

5.  Place  every  adverb  so  that  there  can  be  no  mistake  about 
what  it  modifies. 

In  particular,  watch  the  adverb  only.  Notice  the  dif- 
ference in  meaning  caused  by  change  in  the  position  of 
the  word  only. 

Only  one  man  was  hurt. 

One  man  only  was  hurt. 

One  man  was  only  hurt. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Choose  the  proper  word  for  each  of  the  following 
sentences :  — 

1.  (Most,  almost)  every  one  will  be  there. 

2.  Which  dress  is  the  (cleaner,  cleanest),  this  one  or  that? 

3.  He  was  (some,  somewhat)  tired  after  the  long  walk. 

4.  (Them,  those)  colors  harmonize  well. 

5.  That  music  sounds  (good,  well)  to  me. 

6.  My  lessons  are  (almost,  most)  done. 

7.  What  is  the  price  of  (those,  them)  oranges? 

8.  I  am  (really,  real)  well  now. 

9.  Susie's  hair  is  the  (longer,  longest)  of  the  two. 

10.  It  tastes  (some,  somewhat)  sweet  and  yet  (some,  some- 
what) sour. 


28  THE  SENTENCE 

11.  My  head  feels  (bad,  badly)  to-day. 

12.  How  (nice,  nicely)  this  tastes! 

13.  After  that  test  I  was  (near,  nearly)  starved. 

14.  We  arrived  home  (safe,  safely)  this  morning. 

15.  The  errand  boy  found  the  house  (easy,  easily)  enough. 

16.  Make  the  drawing  a  little  (round,  rounder)  at  the  side. 

17.  How  (sweet,  sweetly)  that  bird  sings ! 

18.  See  (them,  those)  calves  in  the  field  there. 

19.  We  can  hear  the  band  (easily,  easy)  now. 

20.  The  hare  limped  (tremblingly,  trembling)  through  the 
frozen  grass. 

2.  In  the  following  sentences,  place  only  so  that  it 
will  modify  different  words  and  tell  what  change  of 
meaning  is  effected  by  the  change  of  position :  — 

1.  Robert  studied  Latin  this  term. 

2.  Emily  was  allowed  to  whisper  to  Susie  a  moment. 

3.  Fanny  sang  two  songs  tolerably  well. 

4.  The  rugs  for  the  house  that  was  built  last  summer  were 
bought  yesterday. 

5.  I  went  down  the  garden-path  as  far  as   the  white  rose- 
bush. 

6.  Jack  smiled  but  did  not  laugh  when  he  saw  the  mistake 
that  he  had  made. 

PREPOSITIONS 

Prepositions  and  conjunctions  are  small  words,  and 
perhaps  because  of  this  they  are  often  incorrectly  used. 

As  a  general  rule, 

A  preposition  should  not  stand  at  the  end  of  a  sentence, 

unless,  by  placing  it  in  another  position,  the  sentence  is 
made  stiff  and  awkward.  "  Whom  are  you  speaking 
to?  "  is  correct,  and  it  places  the  emphasis  where  it  is 
intended,  on  the  word  **  whom."  "  To  whom  are  you 
speaking?  "  is  also  correct,  but  it  is  not  so  common  nor 
so  effective. 


PREPOSITIONS  29 

The  custom  of  the  best  authors  has  decided  that  cer- 
tain prepositions  shall  be  used  with  certain  verbs  and 
nouns,  and  any  variation  from  this  established  usage 
displays  ignorance.   We  should  say:  — 

between  two 

among  several 

in  New  York  (a  large  city) 

at  Clearwater  (a  small  town) 

on  Greene  Avenue 

at  189  Crescent  Avenue  •- 

agree  with  a  person 

agree  to  a  proposal 

one  thing  corresponds  to  another 

one  person  corresponds  loith  another 

one  person  diflfers  from  another  in  appearance 

one  person  differs  with  another  in  opinion 

disappointed  with  what  we  have 

disappointed  of  what  we  hoped  to  have,  and  have  not 

in  need  of  (not  "for") 

wait  for  a  train  or  a  person 

wait  upon  (to  serve) 

listen  to  (not  listen  "at")  a  sound 

matter  with  (not  "of")  him 

died  of  (not  "with") 

he  is  at  home  (not  "to"  home) 

one  thing  is  different /rom  another  (not  "to"  or  "than") 

Never  use  "  of  "  with  *'  remember  "  or  "  recollect." 
Never  say  "  back  of  "  for  behind, 

EXERCISE 
1.  Insert  the  proper  prepositions  in  the  blanks:  — 

1.  Mark  Twain  was  born the  town  of  Florida,  Mo. 

2.  I  feel  sick my  stomach. 

3.  The  crops  are  in  great  need rain. 

4.  We  love  to  listen Nevin's  songs. 

5.  The  poor  boy  died tuberculosis. 

6.  Paupers  cannot  come  this  country  (or  come  • 

the  house). 


30  THE  SENTENCE 

7.  What  is  the  matter Fido? 

8.  My  book  is  different yours. 

9.  The  baby  is  ill  —  croup. 

10.  Minnie  waited Kate,  and  both  were  late. 

11.  The  North  was  in  sympathy the  slave. 

12.  The  violet  in  its  color  corresponds one  part  of  the 

rainbow. 

13.  The  President  lives the  White  House. 

14.  The  policeman  settled  the  dispute the  two  newsboys. 

15.  France  agreed Franklin  that  America  should  be  free. 

16.  Washington  never  lived Washington. 

17.  My  parents  were  disappointed my  report  card. 

18.  The  cat  corresponds the  tiger,  for  they  are  of  one 

family. 

19.  The  maid  said,  **  My  mistress  is  not home  to-day/* 

20.  They  agreed the  plan  suggested  by  the  captain. 

CONJUNCTIONS 

1.  Correlative  conjtmctions  must  be  placed  immediately  before 
the  words  they  are  intended  to  connect.  Either  must  be 
followed  by  or,  and  neither  by  nor. 

Incorrect:  James  had  neither  learned  his  algebra  or  his  Eng- 
lish lesson. 
Correct:  James  had  learned   neither  his  algebra  nor  his 
English  lesson. 

Incorrect:  James  had  learned  neither  his  Latin  or  studied 
his  history. 
Correct:  James  had  neither  studied  his  Latin  nor  read  over 
his  history. 

2.  Never  use  the  preposition  like  for  the  conjunction  as. 

Incorrect:  Read  it  like  I  do. 
Correct:  Read  it  as  I  do. 

3.  Never  use  as  for  that  or  whether. 
Incorrect:  He  does  not  know  as  we  have  come. 

Correct  :  He  does  not  know  that  we  have  come. 

He  does  not  know  whether  we  have  come. 

4.  Never  use  the  preposition  without  for  the  conjunction  unless. 


CONJUNCTIONS  81 

Incorrect:  The  crop  will  fail  without  there  is  rain. 
Correct:  The  crop  will  fail  unless  there  is  rain. 

5.  Never  use  but  what  to  introduce  a  clause.    Use  but  that 
with  a  clause  or  use  a  phrase. 

Incorrect:  He  never  plays  but  what  he  is  hurt. 

He  does  not  know  but  what  he  may  go. 
Correct:  He  never  plays  without  being  hurt. 

He  does  not  know  hut  that  he  may  go, 

6.  Never  use  the  conjunction  and  for  the  sign  of  the  present 
infinitive. 

The  error  usually  follows  the  verb  "try." 

Incorrect:  Try  and  go. 
Correct:  Try  to  go. 

Sentences  like  the  following  can  be  corrected  only  by 
a  rearrangement :  — 

He  is  as  quick  or  quicker  than  James. 

It  should  read,  — 

He  is  as  quick  as  James,  or  quicker. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Correct  the  errors  in  the  following  sentences:  — 

1.  Try  and  see  me  to-morrow. 

2.  I  do  not  know  if  I  can  go. 

8.  Neither  the  girls  or  the  boys  went  to  the  picnic. 

4.  She  could  not  sleep  without  the  window  was  open. 

5.  Father  does  n't  see  as  he  can  paint  the  house  this  year. 

6.  I  can't  go  anywhere  but  what  my  dog  follows  me. 

7.  The  baby  grows  as  strong  or  stronger  than  five-year-old 
Lucy. 

8.  The  colt  acted  like  it  never  had  seen  an  automobile  be- 
fore. 

9.  Reuben  hurried  to  see  if  the  apples  were  ripe. 

10.  It  never  rains  but  what  it  pours. 

11.  My  head  feels  hke  it  is  going  to  burst. 


32  THE  SENTENCE 

12.  He  not  only  likes  to  read  aloud,  but  also  he  likes  to  sing, 

13.  Try  and  be  good  to-day. 

14.  It  seemed  as  the  medicine  did  no  good. 

15.  I  make  cookies  just  like  grandmother  does. 

16.  She  is  as  tall  or  taller  than  her  mother. 

17.  "Without  you  are  very  good,  Santa  Claus  will  not  come 
here,"  Big  Sister  said. 

18.  Fanny  ate  not  only  the  cake,  but  she  also  drank  all  the 
lemonade. 

19.  She  would  not  go  to  Europe  without  she  took  her  ko- 
dak. 

2.  Write  a  short  story  suggested  by  one  of  the  fol- 
lowing outlines.  They  are  all  newspaper  items:  — 

1.  For  three  days  a  bright,  curly-haired  boy  of  three  has 
been  waiting  at  the  City  Police  Station  for  some  one  to 
call  for  him.  "Toddy"  is  the  only  name  he  can  give. 
A  big  Scotch  collie  was  with  the  child  at  the  time  he  was 
found  on  the  street  and  is  still  with  him.  The  little 
fellow  cried  himself  to  sleep  the  first  night  with  the  call 
of  Mamma  on  his  lips.   Will  no  one  claim  him? 

2.  Fire  destroys  the  old  street-car  used  as  a  little  lunch  place. 
Thomas  Griswold,  the  proprietor,  is  blind.  The  lunch- 
counter  was  the  sole  means  of  support  for  his  family  of 
five  small  children.  The  mother  is  dead.  Alice,  the  oldest 
girl,  twelve  years  of  age,  is  mother  to  the  four  other 
children.  She  keeps  house  and  attends  school.  Griswold 
wishes  very  much  to  keep  his  little  family  together. 

3.  A  gray-haired  man  died  at  his  home  not  long  ago.  When 
a  boy,  he  flew  the  kite  across  Niagara,  to  which  the  string 
was  attached  that  drew  over  the  cords,  ropes,  and  cables, 
as  the  start  in  building  the  suspension  bridge.  He  loved 
to  tell  the  story  to  young  people  of  how  expert  he  was  at 
kite-flying;  of  how  the  bridge-engineers,  facing  the  prob- 
lem of  spanning  Niagara,  came  to  him  for  aid ;  of  his  many 
attempts;  of  the  great  interest  taken  in  the  performance. 

[Tell  this  story  as  if  you  were  the  old  man  talking  to  a  group 
of  children,  or  as  one  of  the  spectators  there,  the  day  the  kite 
was  flown.] 


PUNCTUATION  3S. 

PUNCTUATION 

Sentences  may  be  grammatically  correct,  and  yet  be 
difficult  to  understand,  because  the  relation  of  the  parts 
is  not  made  clear  by  marks  of  punctuation.  The  ear- 
liest written  language  had  no  marks  of  punctuation; 
and  it  is  not  very  long  ago  that  there  were  no  capital 
letters.  It  would  not  be  very  confusing  to  do  without  our 
ornamental  capital  letters;  but  great  annoyance  would 
be  experienced  if  we  had  to  dispense  with  the  marks  of 
punctuation.  These  little  marks  help  wonderfully  in 
making  the  meaning  of  a  sentence  clear.  How  uncer- 
tain the  meaning  is  without  punctuation  may  be  il- 
lustrated by  the  following  sentences:  "  There  stood  the 
old  chief  taller  than  his  companions  at  his  birth  he  was 
so  weak  that  his  father  feared  lest  he  should  die."  If  a 
period  be  placed  after  the  word  *'  birth,"  the  sentence 
is  absurd.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a  period  be  inserted 
after  the  word  **  companions,"  the  meaning  is  per- 
fectly clear.  "  There  stood  the  old  chief,  taller  than 
his  companions.  At  his  birth  he  was  so  weak  that  his 
father  feared  lest  he  should  die."  And  it  makes  a  dif- 
ference how  this  next  sentence  is  punctuated:  "  Strong 
men  and  women,  with  gentle  hands,  were  caring  for  the 
wounded;  "  or,  '*  Strong  men,  and  women  with  gentle 
hands,  were  caring  for  the  wounded."  For  clearness, 
then,  writers  use  with  care  the  marks  of  punctuation. 

There  are  marks  of  punctuation  at  the  end  of 
every  sentence;  and  these  are  called  the  marks  of  final 
punctuation.  They  are  the  period,  the  exclamation 
marky  and  the  interrogation  mark.  There  are  also  marks 
of  punctuation  used  within  a  sentence,  called  the 
marks  of  internal  punctuation.  The  ones  most  often 
used  are  the  comma,  the  semicolon,  and  the  colon. 


34  THE  SENTENCE 

FINAL  MARKS 
The  rules  for  final  punctuation  are  very  simple. 

1.  A  period  is  used  to  close  a  statement,  a  command,  or  a  wish. 

None  but  the  brave  deserves  the  fair. 
Woodman,  spare  that  tree. 
Lead  us  not  into  temptation. 

2.  An  exclamation  mark  is  used  to  close  every  expression  of 
strong  feeling. 

This  mark  generally  follows  an  interjection,  or  an 
exclamatory  sentence. 

"Come  back,  come  back,  Horatius!" 

Loud  cried  the  Fathers  all; 
"Back,  Lartius!  back,  Herminius! 

Back,  ere  the  ruin  fall!" 

3.  The  question  mark  follows  every  direct  question. 

This  is  true  even  when  the  question  forms  a  part 
of  a  declarative  sentence. 

Am  I  my  brother's  keeper? 

This  is  a  question  for  all  to  answer:  Am  I  my  brother's 
keeper? 

THE  COMMA 

Few  errors  are  made  in  the  use  of  the  marks  of  final 
punctuation;  but  this  can  hardly  be  said  of  the  marks 
of  internal  punctuation.  A  very  few  rules  will  be  given 
here  for  these  marks;  but  these  should  be  known,  and 
the  correct  use  of  the  comma  and  the  semicolon  in  all 
cases  covered  by  these  rules  should  be  as  much  a  habit 
as  to  use  a  capital  letter  at  the  beginning  of  a  sentence. 

A  sentence  is  usually  made  up  of  a  simple  subject 
and  a  simple  predicate,  modified  by  words,  phrases, 
or  clauses.  Phrases  and  clauses  are  groups  of  closely 
related  words.    To  show  to  the  reader  that  the  words 


THE  COMMA  35 

composing  phrases  or  clauses  are  closely  related  in 
thought  and  therefore  belong  together,  they  are  in 
many  cases  set  off  from  the  rest  of  the  sentence  by 
commas,  sometimes  by  semicolons.  For  example,  note 
how  this  sentence  from  The  Sketch  Book  is  built  up: 
First,  there  is  the  main  proposition,  "  Ichabod  was 
attracted  to  a  knot  of  the  sager  folks."  Then,  Irving 
adds  a  clause  about  these  "  folks,'*  setting  it  off  from  the 
rest  of  the  sentence  by  a  comma:  "Ichabod  was  at- 
tracted to  a  knot  of  the  sager  folks,  who  sat  smoking 
at  one  end  of  the  piazza."  Within  this  clause  a  phrase, 
set  off  by  commas,  tells  us  that  Van  Tassel  was  in  this 
group:  "  Ichabod  was  attracted  to  a  knot  of  the  sager 
folks,  who,  with  Old  Van  Tassel,  sat  smoking  at  one  end 
of  the  piazza."  Next  he  adds  two  phrases  to  tell  what 
they  were  doing:  "  Ichabod  was  attracted  to  a  knot  of 
the  sager  folks,  who,  with  Old  Van  Tassel,  sat  smoking 
at  one  end  of  the  piazza,  gossiping  over  former  times, 
and  drawing  out  long  stories  about  the  war.*'  But  first 
of  all,  he  tells  when  all  this  happened,  by  a  clause  set 
off  by  commas;  and  the  whole  sentence  reads :  *'  When  the 
dance  was  at  an  end,  Ichabod  was  attracted  to  a  knot  of 
the  sager  folks,  who,  with  Old  Van  Tassel,  sat  smoking 
at  one  end  of  the  piazza,  gossiping  over  former  times, 
and  drawing  out  long  stories  about  the  war." 

The  general  principle  governing  the  use  of  commas 
is  this:  — 

Commas  are  used  to  set  off  "words  or  small  groups  of  related 
words  from  the  remainder  of  the  sentence. 

They  are  found  setting  off  — 

Words. 

I.  Yes  and  no,  when  forming  but  part  of  an  answer. 
Fe«,  here's  a  bit  of  paper. 


36  THE  SENTENCE 

2.  A  noun  of  address. 

Hush,  my  dear,  lie  still  and  slumber. 

3.  An  appositive. 

The  Indian  chief,  Tecumsek,  was  brave. 

4.  Explanatory  adverbs,  like  perhaps,  indeed,  possibly. 

The  time  has  come,  indeed,  when  we  must  flee. 
Phrases. 

5.  Adverbial  phrases,  like  to  be  sure,  for  that  matter,  of  course, 
etc. 

Age,  for  instance,  teaches  patience  and  charity. 

6.  Descriptive  adjective  phrases. 

I  found  Johnny  Bower,  in  blue  coat  and  red  waistcoat. 

7.  Descriptive  participial  phrases. 

There  the  dog  stood,  quivering  with  excitement  from  his 
nose  to  the  tip  of  his  tail. 

8.  Phrases  of  any  kind,  when  out  of  their  normal  order. 

Immured  in  the  Castle  of  Speyer,  the  fiery  king  of  England 
had  been  like  an  eagle  beating  against  the  bars  of  its  cage. 

Clauses. 

9.  Adjective  clauses,  introduced  by  conjimctive  pronouns  or 
conjimctive  adverbs.^ 

»  The  setting  off  of  a  clause  may  depend  upon  whether  it  is  descriptive 
or  restrictive.  The  word  restrict  means  "  to  limit " ;  and  restrictive  means 
••  limitin};."  Take  the  sentence,  "  All  the  men  went  to  the  hospital."  In- 
troduce the  clause,  "  that  were  sick,"  and  the  sentence  no  longer  means 
"  All  the  men  " ;  the  number  has  been  restricted  by  the  clause.  Such  a  clause 
is  called  a  restrictive  relative  clause.  But  if  we  should  write,  "  All  the  men, 
who  were  sick,  went  to  the  hospital,"  the  meaning  is  entirely  different. 
This  sentence  means  that  all  the  men  were  sick,  and  that  all  went  to  the  hos- 
pital. The  relative  clause  is  not  restrictive  in  this  case ;  it  is  descriptive, 
telling  the  condition  of  all  the  men.  In  the  first  sentence,  the  relative 
clause  was  not  set  off  by  commas ;  in  the  other,  the  relative  clause  was  set 
off  by  commas.    The  rules  are :  — 

A  restrictive  relative  clause  is  not  set  oflf  by  commas;  as,  — 
The  men  that  achieve  success  in  this  busy  world  are  forever  at  work. 

A  descriptive  relative  clause  is  set  oflf  by  commas;  as,  — 
Successful  men,  who  are  so  often  the  objects  of  begrudging  jealoosy, 
have  usually  earned  their  success  by  hard  work. 


THE  COMMA  37 

The  lawn  beyond  was  sheeted  with  a  white  covering  of 
snow,  which  here  and  there  sparkled  as  the  moonbeams  caught 
a  frosty  crystal. 

Immured  in  the  Castle  of  Speyer,  where  the  Rhine  receives 
the  tribute  of  the  Speyerbachy  the  fiery  king  of  England  had 
been  like  an  eagle  beating  against  the  bars  of  its  cage. 

10.  Adverbial  clauses 

a.  When  they  precede  the  principal  proposition. 

While  the  fourth  edition  of  the  Traveller  was  on  the 
counters  of  the  booksellers ^  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield  ap- 
peared. 

6.  When  they  follow  the  principal  proposition  and  are 
long. 

He  thought  his  fancy  must  have  deceived  him,  and 
turned  again  to  descend,  when  he  heard  the  same  cry 
ring  through  the  evening,  air:  **Rip  Van  Winkle  I  Rip 
Van  Winkle  I  " 

11.  Noun  clauses,  if  long. 

The  reason  why  so  few  good  books  are  written  is,  thai  so 
few  people  that  can  write  know  anything. 

However,  most  noun  clauses  are  short,  and  are  not 
preceded  by  a  comma. 

Men  know  that  to-morrow  is  the  thief  of  time. 

12.  Independent  propositions  of  a  compound  sentence,  if  they 
are  not  long  or  involved. 

He  took  it  to  a  merchant,  and  the  order  was  given. 


EXERCISE 

1.  The  following  sentences  are  punctuated  correctly. 
Give  the  reason  for  all  the  marks  of  punctuation  used 
in  them:  — 

1.  It  is,  indeed,  a  great  achievement. 

2.  Knowledge,  in  truth,  is  the  great  sun  in  the  firmament. 

3.  The  SpectatoTy  however,  stood  its  ground. 


38  THE  SENTENCE 

4.  Indeed,  of  gallant  Peleus  I  know  nothing. 

5.  One  friend,  perhaps,  in  the  stately  procession  nods  to  an- 
other. 

6.  You,  too,  my  friend,  all  hail! 

7.  Brethren,  I  observe  that  you  lie  and  steal  and  slander 
your  neighbors  a  good  deal. 

8.  Calypso,  the  heavenly  goddess,  smiled. 

9.  Yesterday,  after  twenty  days,  I  escaped  from  the  wine- 
dark  sea. 

10.  Far  out  at  sea  the  white  sails  flash,  and  the  sunmier  surf 
breaks  gently  along  the  shore. 

11.  Be  it  remembered  that  liberty  must,  at  all  hazards,  be 
supported.  We  have  a  right  to  it,  derived  from  our  Maker. 

12.  They  wished  a  battle,  and  wished  it  at  once. 

13.  I  found,  as  usual,  that  there  was  the  least  pretension 
where  there  was  the  most  acknowledged  title  to  respect. 

14.  There  seemed,  I  must  confess,  but  little  pride  in  her  com- 
position. 

15.  America  has  furnished  to  the  world  the  character  of 
Washington.  And,  if  our  American  institutions  had  done 
nothing  else,  that  alone  would  have  entitled  them  to  the 
respect  of  mankind. 

16.  The  dance,  like  most  dances  after  supper,  was  a  merry  one. 

17.  Taken  in  moderation,  self-restraint  is  admirable. 

18.  There,  by  John's  command,  the  mother  and  the  son  were 
starved  to  death. 

19.  The  banquet,  which  had  been  delayed  from  hour  to  hour, 
could  no  longer  be  postponed. 

20.  He  scarcely  tasted  the  banquet,  but  seemed  absorbed  in 
his  bride. 

21.  While  Oliver  was  leading  a  life  divided  between  squalid 
distress  and  squalid  dissipation,  his  father  died,  leaving 
a  mere  pittance. 

22.  He  joined  a  swarm  of  beggars,  which  made  its  nest  in 
Axe  Yard. 

23.  The  boy's  features,  which  were  originally  noble  and  not 
irregular,  were  distorted  by  his  malady. 

24.  One  of  John's  great  vessels,  according  to  the  chroniclers 
of  the  time,  was  worth  four  of  those  in  the  service  of  Louis. 

25.  It  had  a  river,  the  great  Miami  River,  which  was  as  blue 
as  the  sky  when  it  was  not  yellow  as  gold. 


THE  COMMA  89 

26.  Every  child  begins  the  world  again,  to  some  extent,  and 
loves  to  stay  out  doors,  even  in  wet  and  cold. 

27.  Civilization  has  created  palaces,  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to 
create  noblemen  and  kings. 

28.  If  ever  Love,  as  poets  sing,  delights  to  visit  a  cottage,  it 
must  be  the  cottage  of  an  English  peasant. 

2.  The  meaning  of  the  following  sentences  can  be 
made  clear  by  means  of  punctuation.  Insert  the  marks 
where  you  think  they  should  be,  and  give  a  reason  for 
the  insertion :  — 

1.  It  was  a  very  low  fire  indeed  for  such  a  bitter  night. 

2.  Little  children  love  one  another. 

3.  He  came  home  however  in  time  to  catch  the  train. 

4.  Welcome  learned  Cicero  thou  art  welcome! 

5.  Well  sit  we  down  and  let  us  hear  Bernardo  speak  of  this. 

6.  Having  thus  spoken  he  galloped  off  with  his  followers. 

7.  Sing  out  children  as  the  little  thrushes  do. 

8.  Come  we  must  part  friends. 

9.  Elaine  the  lily  maid  of  Astolat  embroidered  in  her  tower. 

10.  Round  the  decay  of  that  colossal  wreck  boundless  and 
bare  the  lone  and  level  sands  stretch  far  away. 

11.  Children  are  as  we  say  always  on  the  move. 

12.  If  humility  becomes  self-conscious  it  is  lost. 

13.  The  teaching  of  manners  used  to  be  charged  for  as  a  special 
accomplishment  in  our  old  private  schools. 

14.  While  you  converse  with  lords  and  dukes  I  have  their 
betters  here  my  books. 

15.  Frightened    by  the  automobile    the  horse    reared    and 
plunged. 

16.  The   horse   frightened   by   the   automobile   reared   and 
plunged. 

17.  Because  the  horse  was  frightened  by  the  automobile  it 
reared  and  plunged. 

18.  Although  a  small  child  is  sometimes  charged  with  idle- 
ness there  is  nothing  which  it  abominates  more. 

19.  Many  a  carol  old  and  saintly  sang  the  minstrel. 

20.  The  fire  with  well  dried  logs  supplied 
Went  roaring  up  the  chimney  wide. 


40  THE  SENTENCE 

21.  Men  may  come  and  men  may  go 
But  I  go  on  forever. 

22.  We  met  a  child  gathering  flowers  who  showed  us  the  way. 

23.  Never  elated  while  one  man  's  oppressed 
Never  dejected  while  another 's  blessed. 

24.  Learn  of  the  mole  to  plough  the  worm  to  weave. 

25.  Well  that  year  as  the  story  runs  there  was  a  great  famine 
in  the  land. 

OTHER  USES  OF  THE  COMMA 
The  other  rules  for  the  use  of  commas  are  very 
simple  :  — 

13.  Commas  are  used  to  separate  the  parts  of 
a.  A  date ; 

July  28,  1910. 
h,  A  location; 

Minneapolis,  Hennepin  County,  Minnesota, 
c.  The  address  of  a  letter; 

Hon.  Thomas  Jefferson,  Monticello,  Va. 

14.  A  comma  may  follow  the  salutation  of  a  letter,  and  must 
follow  the  complimentary  close. 

My  dear  Sir,  Very  truly  yours,  etc. 

15.  Words  or  expressions  in  a  series  should  be  separated  from 
one  another  by  commas,  unless  all  the  connecting  words  are 
expressed. 

His  consort,  a  fine,  fleshy,  comfortable  dame,  followed. 
We  drew  towards  the  shore,  entered  a  creek,  and  landed 
near  some  old  palisades. 

Shining  and  tall  and  fair  and  straight 

As  the  pillar  that  stood  by  the  Beautiful  Gate. 

16.  A  short,  informal  quotation  should  be  separated  from  the 
words  of  the  author  by  a  comma,  or  by  commas. 

"I  do  love  you,"  said  Jackanapes. 
"In  our  country,"  she  remarked,  "there's  only  one  day 
at  a  time." 


OTHER  USES  OF  THE  COMMA  41 

17.  If,  however,  the  quotation  is  broken  where  there  would  be  a 
semicolon  separating  the  clauses  of  the  quotation,  a  comma 
precedes  the  words  of  the  author,  and  a  semicolon  follows 
them. 

Alice  said,  "I  did  n't  know  I  was  to  have  a  party  at 
all;  but  if  there  is  to  be  one,  I  think  I  ought  to  invite 
the  guests." 

Change  the  position  of  the  words  of  the  author,  and 
the  sentence  is  punctuated  this  way :  — 

"I  didn't  know  I  was  to  have  a  party  at  all,"  said  Alice; 
"but  if  there  is  to  be  one,  I  think  I  ought  to  invite  the 
guests." 

EXERCISE 

1.  Give  the  reasons  for  the  use  of  commas  in  the  fol- 
lowing expressions  and  sentences:  — 

1.  June  10,  1910. 
Oct.  14,  1492. 
Sept.  6,  1905. 

2.  Sedalia,  Pettis  County,  Missouri. 
Quincy,  Adams  County,  Illinois. 
Poseyville,  Posey  County,  Indiana. 

3.  Rev.  John  King,  Richmond,  Virginia. 
Robert  Wallace  and  Son,  Atlanta,  Georgia. 
Miss  Sarah  Dudley,  Lexington,  Kentucky. 

4.  My  dear  Sir, 
Yours  very  truly. 
Dear  Sir, 
Yours  truly. 
My  dear  Mary, 
Yours  sincerely, 

5.  Children  delight  to  walk,  run,  skip,  hop,  climb,  jump  — 
in  fact,  to  do  anything  that  keeps  the  muscles  moving. 

6.  A  storm  of  thunder,  lightning,  and  rain  came  on  and 
cooled  the  air. 

7.  Old  farmers,  a  spare,  leathern-faced  race,  in  homespun 
coats  and  breeches,  huge  shoes,  and  magnificent  pewter 
buckles,  were  there. 


42  THE  SENTENCE 

8.  The  General  seized  the  pen,  hurriedly  wrote  the  order, 
enclosed  it  in  an  envelope,  and  dispatched  the  mes- 
senger. 

9.  The  dying  man  raved  about  his  bride,  his  engagement, 
his  plighted  word,  ordered  his  horse,  and  expired  in  the 
fancied  act  of  leaping  into  the  saddle. 

10.  Lincoln  wrote,  "With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity 
for  all." 

11.  "Why,  no,"  answered  the  clock,  "I  never  tire,  for  I  give 
only  one  tick  at  a  time." 

12.  "They  just  took  little  bits  of  the  sky  and  sprinkled  them 
over  the  green  world,"  mused  the  child;  "and  then  these 
little  blue  bits  turned  into  violets." 

13.  "I  lisped  in  numbers," said  Pope, " for  the  numbers  came.'* 

14.  The  recipe  for  making  a  doughnut  read,  "First  take  a 
hole  and  put  a  piece  of  dough  around  it." 

15.  The  prisoner  called  down,  "Bring  a  ball  of  fine  silk,  a  ball 
of  thread,  a  ball  of  stout  twine,  and  a  coil  of  rope,  and  I 
can  escape." 

2.  Insert  commas  in  the  following  sentences,  giving 
the  rule  that  governs  each  case:  — 

1.  Something  I  fear  me  must  have  gone  wrong. 

2.  To  sum  up  Hotspur  is  a  magnificent  animal. 

8.  Genius  at  first  is  little  more  than  a  great  capacity  for  re- 
ceiving discipline. 

4.  All  this  time  the  storm  was  gradually  approaching. 

5.  The  colors  of  the  rainbow  are  red  orange  yellow  green 
blue  indigo  and  violet. 

6.  "It  was"  as  I  have  said  "a  fine  autumnal  day." 

7.  Nelson  said  "England  expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty." 

8.  Wee  modest  crimson-tipped  flower. 

9.  Alone  alone  all  all  alone 
Alone  on  a  wide  wide  sea! 

10.  "Gentlemen  time  and  I  against  any  two"  Scott  said  to 
his  creditors;  "and  I  believe  I  shall  be  able  to  pay  you 
every  farthing." 

11.  I  hate  to  see  a  load  of  bandboxes  go  along  the  street  and 
I  hate  to  see  a  parcel  of  big  words  without  anything  in 
them. 


THE  SEMICOLON  43 

12.  Kinds  hearts  are  more  than  coronets 
And  simple  faith  than  Norman  blood. 

13.  Listen  to  the  average  school-boy.  He  has  a  dozen  or  two 
nouns  half  a  dozen  verbs  three  or  four  adjectives  and 
enough  conjunctions  and  prepositions  to  stick  the  con- 
glomerate together. 

14.  If  you  tickle  us  do  we  not  laugh.'* 

15.  Now  and  then  too  one  could  hear  the  mourning  dove 
calling  far  far  off  to  his  mate. 

16.  Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again. 

17.  Tired  wet  dirty  hungry  and  discouraged  the  boys  returned 
from  fishing. 

18.  When  he  was  asked  his  name  the  boy  replied  My  name  is 
Josephus  Orangeblossom  but  they  call  me  Ceph  for  short. 

19.  The  first  falsehood  the  first  theft  the  first  act  of  cruelty 
the  first  exhibition  of  temper  have  a  fearful  significance 
when  we  think  of  the  habits  to  which  they  may  lead. 

20.  And  like  a  lobster  boiled  the  morn  from  black  to  red  began 
to  turn. 

21.  My  Lord  has  need  of  these  flowerets  gay 
The  reaper  said  and  smiled. 

22.  He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small. 

23.  Aurora  Goddess  of  morning  stands  blushing  in  her  chariot. 

24.  They  maintained  the  gravest  faces  the  most  mysterious 
silence  and  were  withal  the  most  melancholy  party  of 
pleasure  he  had  ever  witnessed. 

25.  Be  truthful  quiet  manly  frank  straightforward  in  your 
conduct. 

26.  Buttons  ribbons  bits  of  gold  lace  shoe-buckles  any  trifle 
Washington  wore  is  esteemed  a  priceless  treasure. 

27.  Then  the  little  Hiawatha  learned  of  every  bird  its  lan- 
guage how  they  built  their  nests  in  summer  where  they 
hid  themselves  in  winter. 

THE  SEMICOLON 

A  semicolon  is  only  a  stronger  comma.  It  is  used 
where  a  comma  seems  too  weak  to  serve  the  purpose. 
Below  are  the  common  rules  for  the  use  of  the  semi- 
colon: — 


44  THE  SENTENCE 

A  semicolon  should  be  used 

I.  To  separate  independent  propositions  of  a  compound  sen- 
tence 
a.  If  they  are  long. 

His  [Washington's]  public  virtues  and  public  prin- 
ciples were  as  firm  as  the  earth  on  which  it  [the  Monu- 
ment] stands;  his  personal  motives,  as  pure  as  the 
serene  heaven  in  which  its  summit  is  lost. 

6.  K  they  are  strongly  independent. 

Answer  not  before  thou  hast  heard;  and  interrupt 
not  in  the  midst  of  speech. 

c.  If  they  are  in  sharp  contrast. 

He  that  guardeth  his  mouth  shall  keep  his  life;  but 
he  that  openeth  wide  his  lips  shall  have  destruction. 

3.  To  separate  a  dependent  clause  from  the  independent  pro- 
position, when  the  clause  is  long. 

In  his  early  voyages,  we  find  him  passing  from  island  to 
island,  inquiring  everywhere  for  gold ;  as  if  God  had  opened 
the  New  World  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Old,  only  to 
gratify  a  passion  equally  senseless  and  sordid,  and  to  offer 
up  millions  of  an  unoffending  race  of  men  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  sword,  sharpened  both  by  cruelty  and  rapacity. 

3.  To  separate  phrases  and  clauses  in  a  series,  if  they  are  long 
or  strongly  independent  of  one  another. 

It  was  inspiring  and  animating  to  witness  the  first  awak- 
ening of  spring;  to  feel  its  warm  breath  stealing  over  the 
senses;  to  see  the  moist  yellow  earth  beginning  to  put 
forth  the  tender  sprout  and  the  green  blade. 

He  rode  with  short  stirrups,  which  brought  his  knees 
nearly  up  to  the  pommel  of  his  saddle;  his  sharp  elbows 
stuck  out  like  grasshoppers';  he  carried  his  small  whip 
perpendicularly  in  his  hand  like  a  sceptre,  and,  as  his  horse 
jogged  on,  the  motion  of  his  arms  was  not  unlike  the 
flapping  of  a  pair  of  wings. 

4.  Before  as,  introducing  an  example. ^ 

»  Many  illustrations  of  this  use  of  the  semicolon  may  be  found  in  this 
chapter. 


THE  SEMICOLON  45 

EXERCISE 

1.  Tell  the  reasons  for  the  use  of  the  semicolons  in  the 
following  sentences,  taken  from  Webster's  orations  at 
the  Bunker  Hill  Monument.  The  sentences  should  first 
be  analyzed  into  their  larger  elements. 

1.  Venerable  men!  you  have  come  down  to  us  from  a  former 
generation.  Heaven  has  bounteously  lengthened  out 
your  lives,  that  you  might  behold  this  joyous  day.  You 
are  now  where  you  stood  fifty  years  ago,  this  very  hour, 
with  your  brothers  and  your  neighbors,  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  in  the  strife  for  your  country.  Behold,  how  al- 
tered! The  same  heavens  are  indeed  over  your  heads; 
the  same  ocean  rolls  at  your  feet;  but  all  else  how  changed! 
You  hear  now  no  roar  of  hostile  cannon;  you  see  no  mixed 
volumes  of  smoke  and  flame  rising  from  burning  Charles- 
town.  The  ground  strewed  with  the  dead  and  the  dying; 
the  impetuous  charge;  the  steady  and  successful  repulse; 
the  loud  call  to  repeated  assault;  the  summoning  of  all 
that  is  manly  to  repeated  resistance;  a  thousand  bosoms 
freely  and  fearlessly  bared  in  an  instant  to  whatever  of  ter- 
ror there  may  be  in  war  and  death;  —  all  these  you  have 
witnessed,  but  you  witness  them  no  more.  All  is  peace. 
The  heights  of  yonder  metropolis,  its  towers  and  roofs, 
which  you  then  saw  filled  with  wives  and  children  and  coun- 
trymen in  distress  and  terror,  and  looking  with  unutter- 
able emotions  for  the  issue  of  the  combat,  have  presented 
you  to-day  with  the  sight  of  its  whole  happy  population, 
come  out  to  welcome  and  greet  you  with  a  universal  jubi- 
lee. Yonder  proud  ships,  by  a  felicity  of  position  appro- 
priately lying  at  the  foot  of  this  mount,  and  seeming  fondly 
to  cling  around  it,  are  not  means  of  annoyance  to  you,  but 
your  country's  own  means  of  distinction  and  defence.  All 
is  peace;  and  God  has  granted  you  this  sight  of  your  coun- 
try's happiness,  ere  you  slumber  in  the  grave.  He  has 
allowed  you  to  behold  and  to  partake  the  reward  of  your 
patriotic  toils;  and  he  has  allowed  us,  your  sons  and  coun- 
trymen, to  meet  you  here,  and  in  the  name  of  the  present 
generation,  in  the  name  of  your  country,  in  the  name  of 
liberty,  to  thank  you! 


46  THE  SENTENCE 

2.  [  Speaking  of  Washington  ]  Born  upon  our  soil,  of  pa- 
rents also  born  upon  it;  never  for  a  moment  having 
had  sight  of  the  Old  World;  instructed,  according  to  the 
modes  of  his  time,  only  in  the  spare,  plain,  but  whole- 
some elementary  knowledge  which  our  institutions  pro- 
vide for  the  children  of  the  people;  growing  up  beneath 
and  penetrated  by  the  genuine  influences  of  American 
society;  living  from  infancy  to  manhood  and  age  amidst 
our  expanding,  but  not  luxurious,  civilization;  partaking 
in  our  great  destiny  of  labor,  our  long  contest  with  unre- 
claimed nature  and  uncivilized  man,,  our  agony  of  glory, 
the  war  of  Independence,  the  great  victory  of  peace,  the 
formation  of  the  Union,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
Constitution  —  he  is  all,  all  our  own! 

3.  To  him  who  doubts  whether  our  fervid  liberty  can  be 
combined  with  law,  with  order,  with  the  security  of  prop- 
erty, with  the  pursuits  and  advancement  of  happiness; 
to  him  who  denies  that  our  forms  of  government  are  cap- 
able of  producing  exaltation  of  soul  and  the  passion  of  true 
glory;  to  him  who  denies  that  we  have  contributed  any- 
thing to  the  stock  of  great  lessons  and  great  examples,  — 
to  all  these  I  reply  by  pointing  to  Washington! 

2.  In  the  following  sentences  insert  the  commas  and 
semicolons  where  you  think  they  belong:  — 

1.  I  had  scarcely  taken  orders  a  year  before  I  began  to  think 
seriously  of  matrimony  and  chose  my  wife  as  she  did  her 
wedding-gown  not  for  a  fine  glossy  surface  but  for  such 
qualities  as  would  wear  well.  To  do  her  justice  she  was  a 
good-natured  notable  woman  and  as  for  breeding  there 
were  few  country  ladies  who  could  show  more.  She  could 
read  any  English  book  without  much  spelling  but  for 
pickling  preserving  and  cooking  none  could  excel  her. 

2.  It  is  not  much  more  than  fifty  years  since  the  people  in 
our  country  villages  lived  by  farming  the  men  mostly 
making  their  own  sleds  shingles  axe-handles  scythes  brooms 
ox  bows  bread  troughs  and  mortars  the  women  carding  spin- 
ning braiding  binding  and  dyeing  they  sat  around  great 
fire-places  with  hanging  crane  fire-dogs  and  a  spit  turned 
by  hand  or  by  clock-work  they  made  their  own  tallow 


THE  COLON  47 

candles  and  used  even  on  festive  occasions  wooden  blocks 
or  raw  potatoes  for  candlesticks  they  ate  from  pewter 
kept  bright  by  the  wild  scouring-nish  they  doctored  their 
own  diseases  by  fifty  different  wild  herbs  all  gathered 
near  home  and  all  put  up  in  bags  for  the  winter  or  hung 
in  rows  of  dried  bunches  they  spun  by  hour-glasses  they 
used  dials  or  had  noon-marks  at  different  points  on  the 
farm  in  many  cases  they  did  not  sit  down  to  regular  meals 
but  each  took  a  bowl  of  milk  and  helped  himself  from  the 
kettle  of  mashed  potatoes  or  Indian  pudding  soap  was 
made  at  home  cheese  pearlash  birch  vinegar  cider  baskets 
straw  hats  each  farm  was  a  factory  of  odds  and  ends  a  vil- 
lage store  in  itself  a  laboratory  of  applied  mechanics. 
3.  In  fact  he  declared  it  was  of  no  use  to  work  on  his  farm 
it  was  the  most  pestilent  little  piece  of  ground  in  the  whole 
country  everything  about  it  went  wrong  and  would  go 
wrong  in  spite  of  him.  His  fences  were  continually  falling 
to  pieces  his  cow  would  either  go  astray  or  get  among  the 
cabbages  weeds  were  sure  to  grow  quicker  in  his  fields  than 
anywhere  else  the  rain  always  made  a  point  of  setting  in 
just  as  he  had  some  out-door  work  to  do  so  that  though 
his  patrimonial  estate  had  dwindled  away  under  his  man- 
agement acre  by  acre  until  there  was  little  more  left  than 
a  mere  patch  of  Indian  corn  and  potatoes  yet  it  was  the 
worst  conditioned  farm  in  the  neighborhood. 

THE  COLON 

The  word  semicolon  means  "  half  a  colon."  The  colon, 
then,  has  the  use  of  a  stronger  semicolon,  as  the  semi- 
colon seemed  to  be  a  stronger  comma.  Indeed,  a  colon 
is  so  strong  a  mark  of  punctuation  that  it  is  very  seldom 
used  to  separate  the  independent  propositions  of  a  com- 
pound sentence;  authors  prefer  to  use  shorter  sentences 
separated  by  a  period. 

I.  A  colon  is  used,  though  rarely,  to  separate  propositions 

a.  That  are  quite  independent  in  thought  and   have   no 
connective  expressed. 

He  who  thinks  much  'of  himself  will  be  in  danger  of 


48  THE  SENTENCE 

being  forgotten  by  the  rest  of  the  world :  he  who  is  always 
trying  to  lay  violent  hands  on  reputation  will  not  secure 
the  best  and  most  lasting. 

b.  That  are  long,  involved,  and  contain  semicolons. 

You  must  know,  then,  that  I  am  very  well  descended;  my 
ancestors  have  made  some  noise  in  the  world;  for  my  mother 
cried  oysters  and  my  father  beat  a  drum:  I  am  told  we  have 
even  had  some  trumpeters  in  our  family. 

The  colon  is  much  more  commonly  used  as  the 
formal  mark  of  punctuation.  This  use  is  illustrated  by 
the  following  rules :  — 

2.  A  colon  may  follow  the  salutation  of  a  letter. 

My  dear  Sir:  Gentlemen: 

3.  A  colon  follows  the  names  of  the  persons  addressed  in  a 
speech. 

Honorable  judges,  ladies,  and  gentlemen: 

4.  A  colon  precedes  a  long  and  formal  quotation;  generally  such 
a  quotation  forms  a  new  and  separate  paragraph. 

He  hung  his  tattered  straw  hat  on  the  bedpost,  and 
knelt  beside  Gay's  crib  with  this  whispered  prayer:  — 

"Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven,  please  help  me  to  find 
a  mother  for  Gay,  one  that  she  can  call  Mamma,  and 
another  one  for  me,  if  there's  enough,  but  not  unless." 

5.  A  colon  usually  precedes  a  series  of  details  in  apposition  with 
some  general  term. 

The  generally  recognized  division  of  mankind  with  ref- 
erence to  race  is  into  three  families:  Caucasian,  Mon- 
golian, and  Negro. 

His  dress  was  of  the  antique  Dutch  fashion:  a  cloth 
jerkin  strapped  round  his  waist,  several  pairs  of  breeches, 
the  outer  one  of  ample  volume,  decorated  with  rows  of 
buttons  down  the  sides  and  bunches  at  the  knees. 

QUOTATION  MARKS 

I.  Every  quotation  of  the  exact  words  of  an  author  must  be 
\     enclosed  within  quotation  marks. 


QUOTATION  MARKS  49 

2.  If  the  quotation  is  broken  by  some  words  of  the  author,  each 
part  of  it  must  be  enclosed  within  quotation  marks. 

3.  If  the  quotation  is  a  question,  it  must  be  followed  by  a  ques- 
tion mark  set  within  the  quotation  marks. 

The  White  Queen  asked,  "Can  you  do  addition?" 

"Can  you  do  addition?"  the  White  Queen  asked. 

4.  If  the  quotation  is  an  exclamation,  it  must  be  followed  by  an 
exclamation  point  set  within  the  quotation  marks. 

"Why,  look  here!"  the  Red  Queen  cried. 

5.  If  the  quotation  is  an  assertion  or  a  command  and  precedes 
the  words  of  the  author,  the  quotation  should  be  followed  by 
a  comma. 

"It's  the  magician,"  Jim  Leonard  whispered  to  Pony. 
"Throw  open  the  door  of  the  boudoir,  Aminidab,"  said 
Aylmer. 

6.  If  a  quotation  is  broken  by  words  of  the  author  at  the  place 
where  there  would  be  a  semicolon  separating  the  clauses  of 
the  quotation,  a  comma  precedes  the  words  of  the  author, 
and  a  semicolon  follows  them. 

"Do  not  be  uneasy,"  said  I;  "here  are  diamonds  enough 
for  you  and  me,  more  than  all  the  others  have  together.'* 

7.  Single  marks  of  quotation  (*  *)  enclose  every  quotation  within 
a  quotation. 

Bacon,  writing  Of  Vain  Glory ^  said:  "It  was  prettily 
devised  of  (Esop,  the  fly  sat  upon  the  axle-tree  of  the 
chariot  and  said,  *  What  a  dust  do  I  raise!'" 

8.  In  reporting  a  conversation,  make  a  new  paragraph  every 
time  the  speaker  changes. 

This  has  not  always  been  the  rule  among  writers;  but 
all  modern  writers  follow  it. 

"Crazy,"  the  fireman  muttered,  looking  to  the  engineer 
for  his  cue. 

I  had  been  crazy,  perhaps,  but  I  was  not  crazy  now. 

"Throw  her  wide  open,"  I  commanded.  "Wide  open! 
These  are  fresh  turtle  eggs  for  Professor  Agassiz  of 
Cambridge." 


50  THE  SENTENCE 

THE  DASH 

1.  A  dash  is  used  to  indicate  an  unexpected  break  in  the  forward 
movement  of  the  thought.  It  is  f oimd  alone,  or  following  other 
marks  of  punctuation. 

Humility  is  the  first  of  the  virtues  —  for  other  people. 

I  don't  mean  that  I  taught  them  to  read  it,  for  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  teach  a  cow  to  read  Latin  or  any  of  the  dead 
languages,  —  a  cow  cares  more  for  her  cud  than  she  does 
for  all  the  classics  put  together. 

Boston  is  just  like  other  places  of  its  size;  —  only 
perhaps,  considering  its  excellent  fish-market,  paid  fire 
department,  superior  monthly  publications,  and  correct 
habits  of  spelling  the  English  language,  it  has  some  right 
to  look  down  on  the  mob  of  cities. 

2.  A  dash  is  used  to  indicate  hesitancy  in  speech  under  strong 
emotion. 

Hush!  hush!  let  me  speak  —  do  not  stop  me.  It  is 
dreadful  —  let  me  tell  all  —  to  the  very  end,  without 
flinching.  Listen. 

3.  A  dash,  with  or  without  a  comma,  is  used  to  separate  a  word 
from  a  word  or  a  series  of  words  in  apposition. 

At  intervals,  and  not  infrequent  ones,  the  forest  and 
the  ocean  summon  me  —  one  with  the  roar  of  its  waves, 
the  other  with  the  murmur  of  its  boughs  —  forth  from 
the  haunts  of  men. 

I  hate  to  hear  a  young  man  say,  "They  all  do  it,"  — 
a  shabby  and  odious  phrase. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Separate  the  following  into  paragraphs  as  it  should 
be  and  insert  the  proper  marks  of  punctuation:  — 

Please  would  you  tell  me  said  Alice  a  little  timidly  for  she 
was  not  quite  sure  whether  it  was  good  manners  for  her  to 
speak  first  why  your  cat  grins  like  that  It's  a  Cheshire  cat 
said  the  Duchess  and  that 's  why  Pig  She  said  the  last  word 
with  such  sudden  violence  that  Alice  quite  jumped  but  she 
saw  in  another  moment  that  it  was  addressed  to  the  baby  and 
not  to  her  so  she  took  courage  and  went  on  again   I  did  n't 


CAPITAL  LETTERS  51 

know  that  Cheshire  cats  always  grinned  in  fact  I  did  n't  know 
that  cats  could  grin  They  all  can  said  the  Duchess  and  most  of 
*em  do  I  don't  know  of  any  that  do  Alice  said  very  politely 
feeling  quite  pleased  to  have  got  into  a  conversation  you  don't 
know  much  said  the  Duchess  and  that 's  a  fact  Alice  did  not 
like  the  tone  of  this  remark  and  thought  it  would  be  as  well 
to  introduce  some  other  subject  of  conversation. 

CAPITAL  LETTERS 

The  common  uses  of  capital  letters  you  probably  know. 

A  capital  letter  should  begin 

1.  Every  new  sentence. 

2.  Every  line  of  poetry. 

3.  Every  name  of  deity. 

4.  Every  proper  name. 

5.  Every  adjective  derived  from  a  proper  name,  except  such  as 
have  lost  the  significance  of  their  origin. 

6.  The  first  word  of  every  direct  quotation. 

7.  Many  abbreviations. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Insert  the  proper  marks  of  punctuation  in  place  of 
the  carets,  and  change  letters  to  capital  where  needed :  — 

1.  Parting  the  counties  of  norfolk  and  lincoln  to-day^  as 
in  medieval  times^  a  broad  inlet  of  the  sea  bears  the 
name  of  "The  Wash"^  five  rivers  find  outlet  to  the 
ocean  through  this  estuary^  its  vast  area  of  sands^  al- 
though passable  at  low  tide^  has  been  the  grave  of  many 
a  venturous  traveller  on  the  12th  of  October^  1216^  a 
long  cavalcade  wound  its  way  along  the  southern  shores 
of  The  Wash  ^  the  steel  armor  of  mounted  knights  flashed 
back  the  rays  of  the  autumn  sun^  archers  and  men  at 
arms  marched  in  solid  phalanx^  silken  banners  fluttered 
in  the  breath  of  the  sea^  but  central  amidst  that  host^ 
guarded  with  jealous  care  on  the  front  and  flank  and 
rear^  rumbled  a  train  of  heavily  laden  wagons^  in  them 
was  such  freightage  as  no  graybeard  in  all  england  had 
ever  seen  before^  money  beyond  all  computation^  wrung 
by  torture  from  the  high  and  the  low^  jewels  which  the 


52  THE   SENTENCE 

great  families  had  proudly  kept  as  heirlooms^  and  be- 
queathed from  generation  to  generation^  costly  garments 
adorned  with  gold  and  precious  stones^  and  endless  stores 
of  gold  and  silver  vessels  and  vestments  stiff  with  em- 
broidery^ from  desecrated  and  plundered  churches^  these 
and  other  spoils  of  robbery  made  the  wheels  of  the  great 
wains  to  creak  and  groan  under  the  precious  load. 

The  tide  had  only  partially  receded^  no  guide  could  be 
found  to  risk  the  leading  of  that  host  over  the  quick- 
sand of  the  wash^  but  the  furious  temper  of  the  chief 
would  brook  no  delay^  leading  the  column^  he  pushed 
rapidly  on  till  he  reached  the  sands  through  which  the 
river  welland  winds^  suddenly  the  ground  beneath  their 
feet  seemed  to  open^  whirlpools  boiled  with  a  foaming 
flood^  and  sucked  down  into  their  depths  men  and  horses 
and  every  wagon  of  the  priceless  baggage  train^  a  great 
part  of  the  army  was  engulfed^  but  their  lord^  with 
those  in  immediate  attendance  upon  him^  reached^  as 
by  a  miracle^  the  other  shore^  as  John  lackland  looked 
back  upon  that  frightful  graveyard^  no  man  on  earth 
constituted  a  stranger  picture^  he  was  a  king  without  a 
kingdom^  a  ruler  without  subjects^  a  leader  without 
followers^  and  a  robber  whose  booty  the  hand  of  God 
had  snatched  away^  maddened  by  the  disaster^  the  king 
made  his  way  to  swineshead  abbey^  where  he  was  seized 
with  a  raging  fever^  always  the  slave  of  his  appetites^  he 
gorged  himself  that  night  on  the  good  monks^  peaches  and 
cider^  desperately  ill  next  morning^  he  persisted  in  push- 
ing northward^  bent  on  some  new  scheme  of  slaughter 
and  devastation^  no  longer  able  to  bestride  his  horse^  he 
was  carried  for  a  little  way  upon  a  rude  litter  woven  by 
his  attendants  of  willow  boughs  cut  with  their  swords^ 
but  with  shrieks  and  curses  he  cried  out  that  this  wicker 
vehicle  was  an  instrument  of  torture^  and  once  more  they 
lifted  him  upon  his  horse^  so  he  came  to  newark^  the 
traveller  in  the  north  of  england^  visiting  that  ancient 
city^  is  still  shown  the  ruined  castle  of  the  bishop  of 
lincoln^  overlooking  the  waters  of  the  trent^  in  some 
chamber  of  that  now  crumbling  edifice^  at  the  hour  of 
midnight  on  the  18th  of  October^  1216^  John  lackland 
closed  his  career  of  unexampled  crime. 


CAPITAL  LETTERS  53 

A  lady  living  in  the  suburbs  of  an  American  city  heard  one 
day^  just  before  breakfast-time^  a  timid  knock  at  her 
front  door^  opening  it^  she  saw  before  her  a  beautiful 
Itah'an  boy^  perhaps  ten  years  old^  and  looking  as  if  he 
had  just  stepped  out  from  a  canvas  of  raphael  or  francia^ 
his  soft  eyes^  his  tangled  hair^  his  trustful  smile  won  her 
instantly^  and  when  he  stated  in  a  voice  as  lovely  as  his  face 
that  he  desired  some  breakfast^  she  ordered  everything  in 
the  house  to  be  set  before  him^  he  ate  with  deliberate  and 
comprehensive  appetite  while  she  sat  at  his  side  rewarded 
occasionally  by  a  flash  of  the  same  seraphic  smile^  even 
breakfast  has  its  limitations^  and  she  at  last  dismissed  him 
from  the  door  with  a  sigh  of  regret^  happening  to  go  out 
some  two  hours  later^  she  found  him  sitting  peacefully  on 
the  steps^  smiling  upon  her  as  trustfully  as  ever^  why^  she 
said  with  surprise^  i  thought  you  had  gone  away  long  ago^ 
oh^  no^  he  said  in  the  same  heavenly  voice^  what  for  go 
away^  plenty  time  go  away^ 

Emerson  somewhere  says  that  at  every  moment  of  a  man's 
life  it  is  he  himself  and  nobody  else  who  fixes  his  position^ 
Coleridge  was  fond  of  an  anecdote  concerning  a  silent  stranger 
who  sat  next  him  at  a  public  dinner^  and  who  would  have 
remained  a  dignified  and  commanding  figure  in  his  memory^ 
had  not  the  excellence  of  some  apple  dumplings  called  him 
for  a  moment  from  his  shell  of  silence^  coming  out  of  it^  he 
ardently  exclaimed^  thems  the  jockies  for  me^  after  that  he 
might  have  been  a  saint  or  hero  at  hearty  but  the  case  was 
hopeless  in  the  mind  of  coleridge^  there  may  be  whole 
grades  of  social  standing  in  a  single  sentence^  if  a  stranger 
begins  by  saying  in  our  hearing^  we  was^  or^  he  done  it^  we 
regard  him  as  distinctly  uneducated  even  though  he  be  a 
college  professor  or  a  member  of  congress^  of  a  little  higher 
grade  would  be  the  errors^  I  don't  knowas^  or^  a  great  ways^ 
or^  cute^  i  remember  when  an  ardent  young  friend  of  mine^ 
who  had  climbed  to  the  top  of  an  old-fashioned  stage  coach 
in  order  to  be  near  a  certain  celebrated  orator^  presently 
heard  him  remark  to  his  little  daughter^  sis^  do  you  set 
comfortable  where  you  be^at  the  next  stopping  place^  my 
young  friend  decided  that  the  day  was  very  windy  and 
thought  she  would  get  down  again  and  ride  inside. 


54  THE  SENTENCE 

2.  Below  are  given  outlines  of  two  very  familiar 
stories  of  American  history.  Choose  the  one  you  pre- 
fer to  write  about,  and  then  let  your  fancy  make  up  a 
good  story.  Tell  it  so  vividly  that  every  one  can  see  just 
how  it  happened. 

MOLLY  PITCHER'S  SOLILOQUY 

Molly  learns  of  her  husband's  sudden  death;  sees  the  need 
of  someone  to  take  his  place;  decides  to  take  it  herself. 

Where  is  her  cannon  stationed?  Give  a  line  or  two  describ- 
ing the  scene.  Has  she  ever  fired  a  cannon  before.'^  Where  or 
how  did  she  learn?  Is  she  afraid  of  the  cannon?  Is  she  afraid 
of  the  enemy?   Does  she  think  and  act  like  a  woman? 

What  is  a  soliloquy?  Imagine  you  are  standing  right  there 
with  her  and  hear  her  real  thoughts.  Let  Molly's  thoughts 
tell  all  that  took  place  as  if  it  were  really  happening  before  her. 
Keep  some  incident  in  mind  to  make  a  strong  ending. 

ETHAN  ALLEN  CAPTURES  TICONDEROGA 

You  learn  of  the  secret  undertaking  to  capture  Ticonderoga, 
and  join  the  party;  meet  the  men  gathered  together  in  the 
woods;  listen  to  the  directions  of  their  leader;  cross  the  river 
silently  in  the  dead  hour  of  night;  climb  the  steep  hill,  on  which 
the  fort  stands;  surprise  the  guards  at  the  gate,  take  them 
prisoners,  etc. 

Now  give  this  entire  story  as  if  you  were  safe  at  home  again 
at  the  fireside  telling  your  mother  and  father,  who  had  been 
unwilling  to  let  you  go.  You  can  see  that  they  are  proud  of 
you,  and  you  can  tell  them  everything  just  as  it  took  place. 
Go  to  the  very  end  of  the  adventure  where  you  entered  the 
bed-chamber  and  captured  the  British  commander.  You  are 
not  afraid  to  praise  yourself  somewhat,  for  you  know  that 
mother  will  understand,  and  father  will  wish  now  that  he 
had  gone  too.  Make  them  see  it  all  so  plainly  that  mother 
will  afterwards  say,  "I  really  believe  I  must  have  been  there.** 
Be  sure  to  keep  for  the  last  something  that  will  make  every 
one  around  the  fire  say,  "Good  for  Ethan  Allen!  Three  cheers 
for  Ethan  Allen!" 


CHAPTER  II 
FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

In  the  first  paragraph  of  this  book,  it  was  made  plain 
that  composition  in  reality  means  the  selection  and  ar- 
rangement of  materials  to  produce  a  desired  result. 
Musicians,  painters,  and  authors  compose  when  they 
select  and  arrange  their  materials.  Yet  when  English 
composition  is  spoken  of,  it  is  generally  understood  that, 
in  addition  to  selecting  and  arranging  materials,  there 
must  be  an  expression  by  means  of  language  so  complete 
that  the  story,  the  picture,  the  idea  in  the  mind  of  the 
writer  may  be  carried  over  to  the  mind  of  the  reader. 
Whoever  completely  and  effectively  conveys  his  thoughts 
and  feelings  from  his  own  mind  to  the  mind  of  another 
by  either  spoken  or  written  words  is  skillful  in  the  use 
of  language. 

All  composition  may  be  arranged  in  two  great  groups. 
The  first  group  includes  composition  that  deals  with 
real  things  and  incidents;  the  second  group  includes 
composition  that  deals  with  thoughts  or  ideas.  The 
first  group  tells  what  things  do,  and  how  things  look. 
It  includes  narration  and  description.  Narration  deals 
with  occurrences;  description  deals  with  appearances. 
The  second  group  explains,  or  proves,  or  arouses  to 
action.  It  includes  exposition,  argumentation,  and  per- 
suasion. Exposition  explains  a  term  or  a  statement; 
argumentation  proves  the  truth  or  the  falsity  of  a 
statement;  persuasion  urges  to  belief  or  action.  Ex- 
position explains;  argumentation  proves;  persuasion 
arouses.    These  are  the  broad  distinctions  that  sepa- 


56  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

rate  the  five  forms  of  discourse.    This  simple  diagram 
may  be  a  help  in  remembering  their  relation:  — 


Composition 


concerning  Things 


(  Narration  relates. 
(  Description  pictures, 
(  Exposition  explains, 
concerning  Ideas      •<  Argumentation  proves. 
I  Persuasion  arouses. 


Narration  is  that  form  of  discourse  which  relates  events  in 
sequence. 

It  includes  stories,  biographies,  tales  of  travel,  and 
some  histories. 

Description  is  that  form  of  discourse  which  aims  to  present  a 
picture. 

Description  does  not  often  occur  alone;  it  is  usually 
found  making  a  part  of  some  other  form  of  discourse, 
especially  of  narration. 

Exposition  is  that  form  of  discourse  which  aims  to  explain 
a  term  or  a  proposition. 

Text-books,  many  histories,  many  magazine  articles, 
and  editorials  belong  to  this  class  of  literature. 

Argumentation  is  that  form  of  discourse  which  aims  to  prove 
the  truth  or  falsity  of  a  proposition. 

School  debates  and  lawyers'  pleas  are  examples  of 
argumentation . 

Persuasion  is  that  form  of  discourse  which  aims  to  influence 
a  man's  will  and  actions. 

Political  addresses  and  sermons  illustrate  this  class. 

Very  seldom  is  any  form  of  discourse  found  without 
some  mixture  of  other  forms.  All  stories  contain  some 
description;  and  very  often  it  is  necessary  to  use  de- 
scription in  order  to  explain.  A  debater  has  need  of 
narration,  description,  and  exposition;  while  a  great 


FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE  57 

orator  or  preacher  explains  and  proves  his  propositions, 
and  uses  both  narration  and  description  to  illustrate 
and  enforce  his  point. 

To  distinguish  among  the  forms  of  discourse,  it  is 
necessary  to  know  the  purpose  of  the  author,  as  shown 
by  his  work.  If  his  aim  is  to  tell  a  story,  the  form  of 
discourse  he  produces  is  narration,  no  matter  how  much 
description  it  may  contain.  If  his  purpose  is  to  make 
his  readers  see  some  objects  as  he  sees  them,  the  form 
is  description.  If  his  purpose  is  to  explain  something 
so  that  his  readers  may  understand  it,  he  has  used  ex- 
position. If  his  purpose  is  to  prove  some  proposition, 
he  has  constructed  an  argument.  If  his  purpose  is  to 
influence  the  will  of  his  hearers  or  readers,  to  change 
their  behavior,  he  has  used  persuasion. 

English  Composition,  then,  is  a  study  of  the  selection 
and  arrangement  of  ideas,  and  of  the  methods  of  using 
the  English  language  to  communicate  them.  All  com- 
position is  divided  into  five  great  classes.  These  classes 
have  broad  lines  of  distinction,  which  are  most  easily 
applied  by  ascertaining  the  purpose  of  the  author. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Below  are  ten  paragraphs  —  two  illustrating  each 
form  of  discourse.  Read  them  carefully.  Deter- 
mine the  purpose  of  the  author.  Tell  what  form  of  dis- 
course each  paragraph  is.  Do  any  of  the  paragraphs 
contain  sentences  of  another  form  of  discourse?  Which 
are  they? 

1.  Jackanapes  had  had  the  start  of  the  Postman  by  nearly 
ten  minutes.  The  world  —  the  round,  green  world  with 
an  oak  tree  on  it  —  was  just  becoming  very  interesting 
to  him.  He  had  tried,  vigorously  but  ineffectually,  to 
mount  a  passing  pig  the  last  time  he  was  taken  out  walk- 


58  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

ing;  but  then  he  was  encumbered  with  a  nurse.  Now  he 
was  his  own  master,  and  might,  by  courage  and  energy, 
become  the  master  of  that  delightful  downy,  dumpy, 
yellow  thing  that  was  bobbing  along  over  the  green  grass 
in  front  of  him.  Forward!  Charge!  He  aimed  well,  and 
grabbed  it,  but  only  to  feel  the  delicious  downiness  and 
dumpiness  slipping  through  his  fingers  as  he  fell  upon 
his  face.  "Quack!"  said  the  yellow  thing,  and  wobbled 
oflF  sideways.  It  was  this  oblique  movement  that  enabled 
Jackanapes  to  come  up  with  it,  for  it  was  bound  for  the 
Pond,  and  therefore  obliged  to  come  back  into  line.  He 
failed  again  from  top-heaviness,  and  his  prey  escaped 
sideways  as  before,  and,  as  before,  lost  ground  in  getting 
back  to  the  direct  road  to  the  Pond. 

And  at  the  Pond  the  Postman  found  them  both,  — 
one  yellow  thing  rocking  safely  on  the  ripples  that  lie 
beyond  duck-weed,  and  the  other  washing  his  draggled 
frock  with  tears  because  he  too  had  tried  to  sit  upon  the 
Pond  and  it  would  n't  hold  him.  —  Ewing. 

2.  The  one  exception  was  the  smallest  of  them,  —  a  very, 
very  little  girl,  with  long  auburn  hair  and  black  eyes;  such 
a  very  little  girl  that  every  one  in  the  house  looked  at  her 
first,  and  then  looked  at  no  one  else.  She  was  apparently 
as  unconcerned  toall  about  her,  excepting  the  pretty  prima 
donna,  as  though  she  were  by  a  piano  at  home  practising 
a  singing  lesson.  She  seemed  to  think  it  was  some  new  sort 
of  game.  When  the  prima  donna  raised  her  arms,  the  child 
raised  hers;  when  the  prima  donna courtesied,  she  stumbled 
into  one,  and  straightened  herself  just  in  time  to  get  the 
curls  out  of  her  eyes,  and  to  see  that  the  prima  donna  was 
laughing  at  her,  and  to  smile  cheerfully  back,  as  if  to  say, 
"  We  are  doing  our  best  anyway,  are  n't  we  ?"  She  had 
big,  gentle  eyes  and  two  wonderful  dimples,  and  in  the 
excitement  of  the  dancing  and  the  singing  her  eyes 
laughed  and  flashed,  and  the  dimples  deepened  and  dis- 
appeared and  reappeared  again.  She  was  as  happy  and 
innocent  looking  as  though  it  were  nine  in  the  morning 
and  she  were  playing  school  at  a  kindergarten.  — 
Richard  Harding  Davis. 

S.  During  the  reply  I  had  an  opportunity  of  surveying  the 
appearance  of  our  new  companion.  His  hat  was  pinched 


•  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE  50 

up  with  peculiar  smartness;  his  looks  were  pale,  thin,  and 
sharp;  round  his  neck  he  wore  a  broad  black  ribbon,  and 
in  his  bosom  a  buckle  studded  with  glass;  his  coat  was 
trimmed  with  tarnished  twist;  he  wore  by  his  side  a  sword 
with  a  black  hilt;  and  his  stockings  of  silk,  though  newly 
washed,  were  grown  yellow  by  long  service.  I  was  so  much 
engaged  with  the  peculiarity  of  his  dress  that  I  attended 
only  to  the  latter  part  of  my  friend's  reply,  in  which  he 
complimented  Mr.  Tibbs  on  the  taste  of  his  clothes  and 
the  bloom  in  his  countenance.  —  Goldsmith. 

4.  The  figures  were  clustered  in  an  irregular  group  in  front 
of  an  old  farm-house  .  .  .  The  photographer  had  not 
been  able  to  conceal  the  fact  that  they  were  all  decent, 
honest-looking,  sensible  people,  with  a  very  fair  share  of 
beauty  among  the  young  girls;  some  of  these  were  ex- 
tremely pretty,  in  fact.  He  had  put  them  into  awkward 
and  constrained  attitudes,  of  course;  and  they  all  looked 
as  if  they  had  the  instrument  of  torture  which  photo- 
graphers call  a  head-rest  under  their  occiputs.  Here  and 
there  an  elderly  lady's  face  was  a  mere  blur;  and  some  of 
the  younger  children  had  twitched  themselves  into  waver- 
ing shadows,  and  might  have  passed  for  spirit-photo- 
graphs of  their  own  little  ghosts.  It  was  the  standard 
family-group  photograph,  in  which  most  Americans  have 
figured  at  some  time  or  other;  and  Lapham  exhibited  a 
just  satisfaction  in  it.  —  Howells. 

5.  Work  is  good.  No  one  seriously  doubts  this  truth.  Adam 
may  have  doubted  it  when  he  first  took  spade  in  hand,  and 
Eve  when  she  scoured  her  first  pots  and  kettles;  but  in 
the  course  of  a  few  thousand  years  we  have  learned  to 
know  and  value  this  honest,  troublesome,  faithful,  and 
extremely  exacting  friend.  —  Agnes  Repplier. 

6.  For  the  question  at  issue  is  not  what  kind  of  poetry  is 
wholesome  for  children,  but  what  kind  of  poetry  do 
children  love.  In  nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty,  that  which 
they  love  is  good  for  them,  and  they  can  giiide  themselves 
a  great  deal  better  than  we  can  hope  to  guide  them.  I  once 
asked  a  friend  who  had  spent  many  years  in  teaching 
little  girls  and  boys  whether  her  small  pupils,  when  left 
to  their  own  discretion,  ever  chose  any  of  the  pretty, 
trivial  verses  out  of  new  books  and  magazines  for  study 


60  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

and  recitation.  She  answered,  "Never."  They  turned 
instinctively  to  the  same  old  favorites  she  has  been 
listening  to  so  long;  to  the  same  familiar  poems  that 
their  fathers  and  mothers  had  probably  studied  and  re- 
cited before  them.  Hohenlinden,  Glenara,  Lord  XJllirCs 
Daughter^  Young  Lochinvar,  Rosabellcy  To  Lucasta, 
on  Going  to  the  Wars,  the  lullaby  from  The  Princess, 
Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere,  Annabel  Lee,  Longfellow's 
translation  of  The  Castle  by  the  Sea,  and  The  Skeleton 
in  Armor,  —  these  are  the  themes  of  which  children 
never  weary;  these  are  the  songs  that  are  sung  forever 
in  their  secret  Paradise  of  Delights.  The  little  volumes 
containing  such  tried  and  proven  friends  grow  shabby 
with  much  handling;  and  I  have  seen  them  marked  all 
over  with  mysterious  crosses  and  dots  and  stars,  each 
of  which  denoted  the  exact  degree  of  affection  which  the 
child  bore  to  the  poem  thus  honored  and  approved.  — 
Repplier. 

7.  He  had  so  many  private  virtues!  And  had  James  the 
Second  no  private  virtues.'^  Was  Oliver  Cromwell,  his 
bitterest  enemies  themselves  being  judges,  destitute 
of  private  virtues?  And  what,  after  all,  are  the  virtues 
ascribed  to  Charles.'*  A  religious  zeal,  not  more  sincere 
than  that  of  his  son,  and  fully  as  weak  and  narrow-minded, 
and  a  few  of  the  ordinary  household  decencies  which  half 
the  tombstones  in  England  claim  for  those  who  lie  be- 
neath them.  A  good  father!  A  good  husband!  Ample 
apologies,  indeed,  for  fifteen  years  of  persecution,  tyranny, 
and  falsehood !  —  Macaulay. 

8.  But,  my  lords,  who  is  the  man  that,  in  addition  to  the 
disgrace  and  mischiefs  of  the  war,  has  dared  to  authorize 
and  associate  to  our  arms  the  tomahawk  and  scalping- 
knife  of  the  savage?  —  to  call  into  civilized  alliance  the  wild 
and  inhuman  inhabitants  of  the  woods?  —  to  delegate  to 
the  merciless  Indian  the  defence  of  our  disputed  rights, 
and  to  wage  the  horrors  of  this  barbarous  war  against 
our  brethren?  My  lords,  these  enormities  cry  aloud  for 
redress  and  punishment.  —  William  Pitt. 

9.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the 
unfinished  work  they  have  thus  far  so  nobly  carried  on. 
It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  re- 


FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE  61 

maining  before  us,  that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take 
increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave 
the  last  full  measure  of  devotion,  —  that  we  here  highly 
resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain, — that 
this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom, 
—  and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth.  — 
Abraham  Lincoln. 
10.  Let  our  object  be  our  country,  our  whole  country,  and 
nothing  but  our  country.  And,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  may 
that  country  itself  become  a  vast  and  splendid  monument, 
not  of  oppression  and  terror,  but  of  wisdom,  of  peace,  and 
of  liberty,  upon  which  the  world  may  gaze  with  admiration 
forever.  —  Daniel  Webster. 

2.  Bring  to  class  an  example  of  each  form  of  discourse. 
Generally  you  will  find  them  all  in  some  part  of  the  Sun- 
day editions  of  our  great  daily  newspapers.  Most  maga- 
zines contain  examples  of  at  least  three  forms  of  dis- 
course; and  the  Youth* s  Companion  often  contains  all 
forms. 

3.  Below  are  some  subjects  for  compositions.  Tell 
what  form  of  discourse  you  would  use  in  writing  of 
each  of  these  subjects. 

1.  The  First  Snowball. 

2.  What  the  Telephone  Has  Done  for  Country  Life. 

3.  The  View  down  the  Street. 

4.  Patriotism  Must  Continually  be  Kept  Alive. 

5.  It  Happened  on  a  Street-car. 

6.  School  Honor. 

7.  Should  a  Lie  Ever  Be  Told? 

8.  And  Then  I  Cried. 

9.  Be  Truthful. 

10.  Grandmother,  Bless  Her! 

11.  A  Hot  Sunday  in  Church. 

12.  Why  I  Dread  Examinations, 

13.  Playing  at  Being  a  Ghost. 

14.  Tommy  Tucker,  Our  Cat. 

15.  What  Fibbing  Leads  to. 


62  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

16.  Do  the  Colored  Picture  Supplements  in  the  Newspapers 
Exert  the  Best  Influence? 

17.  The  Pupil  Who  Tries  Simply  to  Pass. 

18.  Hunting  for  my  First  Job  as  an  OflSce  Boy. 

19.  The  Need  of  Playgrounds  in  Our  Big  Cities. 

20.  How  Wireless  Saved  the  Ship. 

NARRATION 

Narration  has  been  defined  as  that  form  of  dis- 
course which  relates  events  in  sequence.  It  includes 
not  only  letters,  journals,  biographies,  books  of  travel, 
and  histories;  but,  in  addition,  that  great  body  of  liter- 
ature which  people  generally  include  in  the  compre- 
hensive term,  '*  stories." 

Narration  deals  with  things,  as  does  description;  but 
the  difference  is  that  narration  deals  with  the  actions 
of  things,  while  description  deals  with  the  appearance 
of  things.  "  John  struck  James  "  is  a  narrative  sentence; 
it  tells  that  John  has  been  doing  something.  Still  this 
one  sentence  would  not  ordinarily  be  regarded  as  a  piece 
of  narration.  To  have  narration,  as  it  is  generally  under- 
stood, there  must  be  a  series,  or  sequence,  of  individual 
actions.    Relating  events  in  sequence  is  narration. 

Narration  is  the  most  popular  form  of  discourse.  Be- 
tween one  fourth  and  one  third  of  all  the  books  pub- 
lished are  stories;  and  more  than  one  half  the  books 
issued  by  the  libraries  belong  to  the  narrative  class. 
Such  a  computation  does  not  include  the  large  number  of 
stories  printed  in  our  papers  and  magazines.  Besides 
being  the  most  popular  form  of  discourse,  it  is  the  most 
natural;  for  it  is  the  first  form  of  connected  discourse 
spoken  by  the  child,  it  is  the  form  employed  by  the  un- 
cultured in  giving  their  impressions,  and  it  is  the  form 
most  used  in  conversation.  Then  again,  narration  is 
the  first  form  found  in  the  great  literatures;  the  Iliad  and 


NARRATION  63 

the  Odyssey,  the  stories  of  the  Bible,  the  songs  of  the 
troubadours  of  France,  and  of  the  minnesingers  of  Ger- 
many, the  chronicles  and  ballads  of  merry  England,  — 
all  are  narrative. 

Language,  as  a  means  of  expression,  is  specially  suited 
to  narration.  Music  may  be  the  best  means  of  expressing 
the  finer  feelings;  line  and  color  may  best  convey  to  us  the 
appearance  of  objects;  but  language  is  the  surest  means 
of  telling  a  story.  The  mind  does  not  think  in  single 
words,  but  in  groups  of  words,  complete  enough  so  that 
they  represent  a  single  idea.  "  He  had  dropped  his  cut- 
lass "  is  such  a  group  of  words.  The  first  word,  "  He,'* 
makes  almost  no  impression;  and  the  first  three  words 
are  unsatisfactory,  because  the  mind  does  not  yet  know 
whether  he  dropped  his  watch  or  dropped  out  of  sight. 
But  when  the  whole  group  of  words  has  been  spoken, 
then  the  action  is  clear.  Such  a  group  of  words  is  like 
a  picture  thrown  upon  a  screen.  And  just  as  a  series 
of  single  pictures  tells  a  story  at  the  moving  picture  show, 
so  a  series  of  groups  of  words  tells  a  story  in  man's 
everyday  life.  The  pictures  on  the  screen  follow  one 
after  the  other  in  the  order  in  which  the  events  hap- 
pened; and  the  groups  of  words  in  a  story  follow  one 
another  in  the  same  way.  Take  this  lurid  bit  from 
Stevenson's  Kidnapped :  — 

He  had  dropped  his  cutlass  as  he  jumped,  and  when  he  felt 
the  pistol,  whipped  straight  round  and  laid  hold  of  me,  roaring 
out  an  oath;  and  at  that  either  my  courage  came  again,  or  I 
grew  so  much  afraid  as  came  to  the  same  thing;  for  I  gave  a 
shriek  and  shot  him  in  the  midst  of  the  body.^ 

In  this  paragraph,  each  phrase  or  clause  represents 
a  unit  of  thought  —  "he  had  dropped  his  cutlass,"  " he 
jumped,"  "  when  he  felt  the  pistol,"  and  so  forth;  and 
these  groups  of  words  follow  one  after  the  other  in  the 

1  By  permisBion  of  the  PubliBhers,  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


64  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

order  in  which  the  events  must  have  occurred.  So  it 
is  seen  that  language,  as  a  means  of  expression,  is  es- 
pecially suited  to  telling  a  story.  The  events  which  are 
recorded  and  the  phrases  which  record  them  follow  one 
after  the  other  in  the  same  sequence. 

EXERCISE 

Possibly  no  form  of  narration  so  clearly  illustrates  this 
sequence  of  events  as  does  a  diary,  or  journal.  That  you 
may  see  how  this  is,  and  how  well  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  a  story  language  is,  you  may  write  one  of  the  follow- 
ing:— 

1.  A  diary  of  your  own  life  for  three  days.  Do  not  go  too 
much  into  detail,  but  give  the  principal  things  that  you 
have  done  in  three  days. 

2.  A  diary  of  a  cat  for  three  days. 

3.  A  journal  of  your  last  trip  away  from  home,  or  of  an 
outing. 

4.  A  journal  of  a  hunting  or  fishing  excursion. 

5.  An  accurate  account  of  a  single  experience  in  making 
something  in  the  kitchen.  This  will  be  almost  a  recipe 
for  the  making  of  a  cake,  or  bread,  or  fudge,  or  for  cook- 
ing a  steak,  or  any  other  kind  of  food. 

ORDER  OF  EVENTS 

The  sequence  of  events  in  narration  may  be  the  simple 
sequence  of  time.  This  is  the  form  of  narration  found  in 
newspapers  when  giving  the  events  of  the  day.  It  is 
used  in  journals,  biographies,  and  elementary  histories. 
It  makes  little  demand  upon  an  author  further  than 
that  he  shall  say  something  that  is  interesting  so  that 
it  may  be  easily  understood.  Managers  of  newspapers 
and  magazines  are  on  the  lookout  for  interesting  ma- 
terial; and  it  is  chiefly  for  the  matter  they  secure,  not  for 
their  way  of  telling  it,  that  their  periodicals  are  read. 


ORDER  OF  EVENTS  65 

The  sequence  may  be  the  more  binding  relation  of 
cause  and  effect.  In  this  sequence  one  thing  happens 
because  another  has  happened.  This  is  the  sequence 
found  in  magazine  stories  and  novels.  Generally  the 
sequence  of  time  and  the  sequence  of  cause  and  effect 
correspond;  for  effects  must  come  after  causes.  How- 
ever, when  more  than  one  cause  is  introduced,  and  we 
have  two  or  three  series  of  events  related,  it  is  necessary 
to  carry  on  one  part  of  the  story  alone,  and  afterwards 
to  go  back  and  pick  up  the  other  part  of  the  story.  This 
is  seen  in  so  simple  a  story  as  The  Spectre  Bridegroom, 
where  the  two  threads  of  the  story  cannot  be  carried 
forward  together.  After  introducing  us  to  the  great 
house  of  Baron  Katzenellenbogen,  with  its  large  pre- 
parations for  the  wedding  of  the  charming  daughter, 
and  then  picturing  for  us  the  distressing  delay,  Irving 
says,  "  While  the  old  castle  of  Landshort  was  in  this 
state  of  perplexity,  a  very  different  scene  was  transact- 
ing in  a  different  part  of  the  Odenwald."  And  then, 
when  we  have  learned  of  the  sudden  attack  of  the  ban- 
dits and  the  untimely  death  of  the  bridegroom,  he  says, 
"It  is  now  high  time  that  we  should  return  to  the  an- 
cient family  of  Katzenellenbogen,"  etc.  The  time  order 
was  broken  to  introduce  an  episode  that  was  necessary 
to  an  understanding  of  the  story;  and  now  the  tale  may 
go  on.  Such  an  arrangement  is  very  common  in  the 
telling  of  stories;  and  may  be  termed  the  broken  time 
order. 

Then,  too,  an  author  may  tell  effects,  but  keep  the 
cause  hidden  until  he  can  produce  it  to  the  reader's 
surprise.  In  the  same  tale.  The  Spectre  Bridegroom^  at 
the  end  of  one  paragraph  we  read,  "Her  room  was  empty 
—  the  bed  had  not  been  slept  in  —  the  window  was 
open,  and  the  bird  had  flown! "    And  the  next  para- 


66  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

graph  continues,  '*  The  astonishment  and  concern  .  .  . 
can  only  be  imagined,"  etc.  Here  we  have  an  effect, 
and  our  interest  is  aroused  to  learn  what  was  the  hidden 
cause.  And  this  we  learn  when  finally  the  events  that 
preceded  the  departure  of  the  beautiful  daughter  are 
related,  and  the  mystery  is  "  cleared  up."  This  arrange- 
ment is  the  same  that  is  usually  found  in  detective 
stories.  The  mystery,  which  was  the  result  of  causes  at 
work,  is  placed  before  the  reader  at  the  beginning.  It 
is  the  business  of  the  detective  to  find  the  cause  that 
produced  the  effect.  And  this  search  makes  the  story. 
Such  an  arrangement,  in  which  the  effect  precedes  the 
cause,  might  be  termed  the  inverted  order. 

PLOT 

A  story  is  said  to  have  plot,  when,  by  a  skillful 
handling  of  its  several  incidents,  the  reader's  interest 
is  aroused  concerning  the  result  of  it  all.  Books  of 
travel  and  biographies,  as  whole  books,  are  generally 
"jvithout  any  arrangement  involved  enough  to  be  termed 
a  plot;  yet  a  large  part  of  the  interest  in  such  books 
would  be  lost  were  the  incidents  not  well  told,  with  a 
conscious  attempt  to  set  them  out  in  the  best  fashion, 
—  if,  in  fact,  each  incident  itself  did  not  have  a  slight 
plot.  On  the  other  hand,  in  Vanity  Fair  with  its  six 
hundred  pages,  in  Silas  Mamer  with  its  two  hundred 
pages,  in  the  spicy  anecdotes  and  short  stories  found 
in  our  best  magazines,  the  authors  have  used  their 
skill  to  maintain  interest  to  the  very  end.  They  have 
constructed  plots. 

Still  there  may  be  plot  in  a  story  when  it  follows 
exactly  the  time  order.  How  wonderfully  Aldrich  has 
kept  up  the  interest  in  Our  New  Neighbors  !  Still  he  has 
followed  without  variation  the  order  of  time.    Very  few 


PLOT  67 

stories  conceal  the  secret  as  well  as  this;  and  almost 
never  does  one  meet  with  a  more  deHghtful  surprise, 
unless  it  be  in  Marjorie  Daw  or  Goliath,  by  the  same 
author.  In  each  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  the  whole 
thing  will  turn  out;  and  this  mystery  has  all  been 
brought  about  by  very  skillful  telling.  It  is  worth 
while  to  go  over  these  stories  just  to  see  how  often 
the  reader  has  been  told  the  whole  secret,  which  he 
has  never  guessed.   These  stories  have  plot. 

A  simple  plot  has  but  few  causes  at  work  to  bring 
about  the  final  outcome,  and  it  requires  but  few  actors 
and  few  changes  of  time  and  scene.  An  intricate,  or  in- 
volved, plot  has  many  causes  at  work,  and  requires 
many  actors  and  frequent  changes  of  time  and  place. 
For  example,  Robinson  Crusoe  has  but  slight  plot.  The 
plot  in  Treasure  Island  is  simple;  so  is  that  of  The  Man 
without  a  Country.  The  plot  of  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities 
is  intricate;  so  are  the  plots  of  The  Mill  on  the  Floss  and 
Julius  CcBsar. 

Any  treatment  of  the  parts  of  a  story  so  that  the* 
reader's  interest  is  aroused  concerning  the  result  of 
the  series  of  events  narrated  is  a  plot. 

EXERCISE 

1.  The  following  outlines  for  short  stories  have  been 
taken  from  newspaper  items.  Arrange  each  outline  in 
a  different  way,  and  tell  whether  it  is  better  in  the  new 
order,  or  as  it  stands  here.  Choose  one  of  the  themes 
and  write  it  out  in  a  good  story :  — 

1.  a.  "Hide  and  seek'*  with  a  burglar. 

b.  Householder  fails  in  his  attempt  to  arrest  intruder. 

c.  Police  come  too  late. 

2.  a.  Diamond  rings  given  to  the  ice  man. 


68  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

b.  Envelope  supposed  to  contain  ten  cents  sent  down  on 
the  dumb  waiter  from  Flat  6  in  Lincoln  Apartments. 

c.  Ice  man  in  jail. 

3.  a.  Great  doings  in  Antville. 

b.  Ground  ants  delighted  beyond  words. 

c.  Physician  ants  too  busy  to  talk  for  publication. 

d.  Big  picnic  at  the  lake  yesterday. 

e.  Ants  enjoy  fried  chicken,  sandwiches,  cherry-pie,  and 
lemonade. 

4.  a.  Charles  Lyons,  a  twelve-year-old  boy,  gone  all  night. 

b.  Found  in  the  morning  by  a  policeman,  his  eyes  blistered 
by  tears. 

c.  Had  been  sent  to  the  bank  by  a  neighbor  to  deposit 
some  money. 

d.  The  money  was  lost. 

e.  Could  not  face  the  poor  woman  by  whom  he  had  been 
sent  to  the  bank. 

2.  Find  three  interesting  items  in  the  newspaper. 
Outline  them  in  the  exact  time  order.  Then  rearrange 
them  in  the  inverted  order. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  STRUCTURE 

In  the  construction  of  any  English  composition,  there 
are  three  principles  of  primary  importance,  called  the 
Principles  of  Structure.  They  are  Unity,  Mass,  and 
Coherence. 

Unity.  Before  a  person  can  write  a  composition,  he 
must  have  the  material.  It  may  be  something  he  has 
heard,  something  he  has  done,  something  he  has  read, 
or  something  he  has  imagined.  Then  out  of  his  treasure 
of  material  he  must  select  that  which  will  help  along 
the  theme  he  has  chosen.  He  makes  his  selection  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  principle  of  Unity. 

Unity  is  that  principle  of  structure  which  demands  that  every 
part  of  a  composition  shall  contribute  its  share  to  the  central 
thought  of  the  whole. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  STRUCTURE  69 

A  picture  has  unity  when  the  objects  have  been  so 
selected  that  all  contribute  to  the  thought  the  artist 
wishes  to  express.  The  introduction  of  a  wash-tub  into 
a  group  made  up  of  spectacles,  lamp,  and  Holy  Book 
would  ruin  the  picture.  So  the  suggestion  of  war  would 
destroy  the  quiet  serenity  of  Irving*s  beautiful  picture 
of  Sleepy  Hollow.   Note  the  following  paragraph :  — 

My  inferiority  to  these  companions  of  mine  depressed  me. 
They  were  allowed  to  go  without  shoes  and  stockings;  they 
wore  loose  and  comfortable  old  clothes,  and  were  under  no 
responsibility  to  keep  them  dry  or  clean  or  whole;  they  had 
their  pockets  literally  bulging  now  with  all  sorts  of  portentous 
engines  of  noise  and  racket  —  huge  brown  "double-enders," 
bound  with  waxed  cord;  long,  slim,  vicious-looking  "nigger- 
chasers";  big  "Union  torpedoes,"  covered  with  clay,  which 
made  a  report  like  a  horse-pistol,  and  were  invaluable  for 
frightening  farmers'  horses;  and  so  on  through  an  extended 
catalogue  of  recondite  and  sinister  explosives,  upon  which  I 
looked  with  awe,  as  their  owners  from  time  to  time  exhibited 
them  with  the  proud  simplicity  of  those  accustomed  to  great- 
ness. Several  of  thase  boys  also  possessed  toy  cannons,  which 
would  be  brought  forth  at  twilight.  They  spoke  firmly  of 
ramming  them  to  the  muzzle  with  grass,  to  produce  a  greater 
noise  —  even  if  it  burst  them  and  killed  everybody.  —  Harold 
Frederic.^ 

This  paragraph  has  Unity;  every  sentence  makes  it 
clear  that  the  other  boys  were  superior,  by  boy  stand- 
ards. But  introduce  into  the  paragraph  one  sentence 
telling  that  his  father  was  much  better  off  than  the  pa- 
rents of  those  other  boys,  and  that  he  was  well  clothed, 
had  plenty  of  money  in  his  pockets,  and  could  run  his 
father's .  automobile,  and  the  unity  of  the  whole  im- 
pression would  be  destroyed.  Aldrich's  story.  Our  New 
Neighbors,  contains  not  a  single  sentence  that  does  not 
help  forward  the  delightful  narrative.    The  story  has 

1  Copyright,  1808, 1894, 1897,  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.    By  permission  of  the  Publishers. 


70  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

Unity.  Whether  of  a  sentence,  a  paragraph,  or  a  whole 
composition,  all  those  parts  must  be  excluded  that  do 
not  bring  something  of  value  to  the  whole;  and  every- 
thing must  be  included  that  is  necessary  to  give  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  whole.  The  selection  of  material 
must  be  made  in  obedience  to  this  first  and  most  impor- 
tant principle  of  structure  —  Unity. 

EXERCISE 

1.  The  outline  below  is  made  in  strict  time  order:  — 

A  MOLASSES  CANDY  FROLIC 

a.  I  receive  an  invitation  to  a  party  at  a  country  home. 
6.  A  hayrack  is  the  conveyance:  gathering  the  company. 

c.  The  ride.   Who  was  with  whom?  What  did  the  com- 
pany do? 

d.  The  arrival.    Getting  acquainted. 

e.  The  awkward  beginning  of  the  party. 

/.  The  change  that  came  when  the  candy  began  to  boil. 
g.  Pulling  candy. 
h.  The  games. 
i.  The  return. 

Now  introduce  the  unfortunate  fact  that  some  boys 
were  not  invited  to  the  party,  and  that  they  determined 
to  make  themselves  troublesome.  This  gives  two  series 
of  incidents  and  makes  broken  time  order  necessary. 
Make  a  new  outline,  including  these  two  parts  of  the 
story.   Is  this  story  better  than  the  first  one? 

2.  Make  outlines  for  the  following  subjects.  Be  sure 
that  every  division  of  your  outline  contributes  some- 
thing worth  while  to  the  central  thought  of  the  whole; 
that  your  story  has  Unity.  Can  you  change  one  of  your 
outlines  so  as  to  produce  a  story  with  broken  time  order 
or  inverted  order? 


PRINCIPLES  OF  STRUCTURE  71 

1.  A  Week-end  with  a  Chum  in  the  Country. 

2.  How  I  Earned  Money  to  Go  to  a  Picnic. 

3.  Building  Our  Shack. 

Mass  and  Coherence.  When  the  material  for  any 
piece  of  composition  has  been  selected  according  to  the 
principle  of  Unity,  it  must  be  cleverly  arranged,  if  the 
writer  would  get  the  best  results  from  his  material. 
The  principles  of  structure  according  to  which  material 
is  arranged  are  Mass  and  Coherence. 

Mass  is  that  principle  of  structure  which  demands  that,  in 
composition,  the  parts  that  are  of  most  importance  shall  be 
placed  in  positions  of  importance. 

The  beginning  and  the  end  of  a  sentence,  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end  of  a  paragraph,  the  beginning  and  the 
end  of  a  story  or  an  essay  are  the  positions  of  most  im- 
portance in  each.  When  a  piece  of  composition  —  a 
sentence,  a  paragraph,  an  essay  —  is  well  massed,  im- 
portant matters  stand  in  these  important  positions. 

The  application  of  the  principle  of  Coherence  will 
be  most  clearly  seen  in  an  easy  sentence.  Take  this: 
"  Habits  of  speech  which  are  to  continue  through  a  life- 
time cannot  be  formed  in  a  few  short  periods  spent  in 
grammar  classes."  The  clause  "  which  are  to  continue 
through  a  lifetime  "  is  a  modifier  of  **  Habits  of  speech,'* 
and  it  stands  in  its  proper  place  —  as  near  as  possible 
to  the  word  it  modifies.  Now  move  it  to  another  posi- 
tion, and  the  sentence  becomes  absurd:  "  Habits  of 
speech  cannot  be  formed  in  a  few  short  periods  which  are 
to  continue  through  a  lifetime  spent  in  grammar  classes." 
How  ridiculous  a  sentence  may  be  when  a  clause  is 
away  from  the  word  it  modifies  is  illustrated  by  the 
following:  (1)  "  The  happy  couple  left  on  the  train  for 
the  city  amid  a  shower  of  rice,  where  they  will  spend 


72  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

a  few  days  before  making  their  home  at  Melrose."  (2) 
"  Erected  to  the  memory  of  James  Allen,  shot  July  16, 
1843,  as  a  mark  of  affection  by  his  brother."  In  the 
arrangement  of  a  sentence,  every  phrase  and  every 
clause  must  be  placed  as  near  as  possible  to  the  word  it 
modifies. 

In  the  following  paragraph,  sentences  have  been 
moved  away  from  the  places  they  originally  occupied, 
and  away  from  the  words  they  modified.  The  sentences 
do  not  stick  together;  the  paragraph  has  not  Coherence. 

(a)  Blue  Bob  must  have  had  a  last  name,  but  none  of  the 
little  fellows  knew  what  it  was.  (b)  He  was  the  only  person 
that  the  watchman  let  go  on  the  bridge  for  two  days,  (c)  Every- 
body called  him  Blue  Bob,  because  he  had  such  a  thick,  black 
beard  that  when  he  was  just  shaved  his  face  looked  perfectly 
blue,  (d)  That  was  all  the  boys  said  when  they  followed  Blue 
Bob  to  the  bridge  and  saw  him  getting  out  on  the  pier,  (e?)  He 
knew  all  about  the  river  and  its  ways;  and  if  it  had  been  any 
use  to  go  out  in  a  boat,  he  would  have  gone. 

If  the  sentences  be  read  in  this  order — a,  c,  e,  d,  b, 
the  paragraph  will  have  a  clear  meaning,  and  each  sen- 
tence will  seem  to  grow  out  of  the  one  preceding.  In 
the  arrangement  of  the  parts  of  a  paragraph,  sentences 
that  are  related  must  be  placed  together,  and  those 
that  are  not  related  must  be  kept  apart;  then  the  para- 
graph will  have  Coherence. 

This  principle  of  Coherence  guides,  too,  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  incidents  that  make  up  a  story.  The 
incidents  must  hang  together;  they  must  be  closely 
connected.  Suppose  that  the  outline  on  page  70  were 
in  this  order,  how  very  unfortunate  it  would  be ! 

A   MOLASSES  CANDY    FROLIC 

a.  I  receive  an  invitation  to  a  party  at  a  country  home. 

b.  The  arrival.  Getting  acquainted. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  STRUCTURE  73 

c.  The  awkward  beginning  of  the  party. 

d.  A  hayrack  is  the  conveyance:    gathering  the  company. 

e.  The  ride.  Who  was  with  whom?  What  did  the  company 
do? 

/.  The  games. 

g.  The  change  that  came  when  the  candy  began  to  boil. 

h.  Pulling  candy. 

t.  The  return. 

Could  you  make  an  arrangement  that  would  be  worse? 
It  is  disconnected,  disjointed;  a  reader  must  jump  about 
from  one  thing  to  another,  instead  of  advancing  stead- 
ily from  one  event  to  the  one  that  naturally  comes  next 
in  order.  In  a  sentence,  then,  in  a  paragraph,  in  an  es- 
say, those  parts  must  stand  together  which  belong  to- 
gether. By  such  an  arrangement  sentences,  paragraphs, 
and  compositions  have  Coherence. 

Coherence  is  that  principle  of  structure  which  demands  that, 
in  composition,  parts  which  are  closely  related  in  thought  shall 
be  kept  close  together  in  expression;  and  that  parts  separated  in 
thought  shall  be  kept  separated  in  expression. 

EXERCISE 

1.  You  have  read,  I  hope,  Beauty  and  the  Beast  and 
Jacky  the  Giant  Killer.  If  you  have  not,  possibly  you 
know  some  other  equally  good  stories.  If  you  have 
any  of  these  at  home  or  in  your  school  library,  separate 
one  of  them  into  its  incidents,  arranging  them  in  the 
order  in  which  they  are  told.  Do  the  incidents  follow 
one  another  in  the  order  in  which  it  is  easiest  to  remem- 
ber them?  What  is  the  order  of  arrangement:  time 
order,  cause  and  effect  order,  or  inverted  order?  Has  the 
story  Coherence?  Does  the  story  close  with  an  important 
incident?  Is  it  arranged,  then,  in  accordance  with  the 
principle  of  Mass? 


74  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

Other  stories  that  will  serve  well  are  :  — 

Ali-Baba  and  the  Forty  Thieves  The  Faithful  Tin  Soldier 

Cinderella  Gallegher 

Rumpel-Stilts-Kin  Roger  Malvin's  Burial 

The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish  Wee  Willie  Winkie 

2.  Following  the  suggestions  below,  write  about  one 
of  these  incidents  from  United  States  history :  — 

THE    NIGHT   OF   THE    BOSTON   TEA    PARTY 

Benny  had  noticed  there  was  something  unusual  in  the  air 
at  home.  Father  was  so  mysterious.  He  and  Mother  held 
whispered  consultations  in  the  entry.  Once  through  the  half- 
open  bedroom  door  he  caught  sight  of  something  on  the  bed 
that  looked  like  the  war-bonnet  of  the  Indian  Chief,  Old 
Blackfoot.  Mother  said  there  were  no  war-bonnets  in  the 
house  that  had  been  worn  by  any  Indian  she  knew  of;  and 
yet,  he  thought  his  mother  smiled  a  little  as  she  said  that. 
What  did  it  all  mean.'*  He  went  to  bed  early,  as  usual,  but  not 
to  sleep. 

Tell  how  he  slipped  out;  what  he  saw  in  the  streets;  how  he 
followed  the  crowd;  what  happened  at  the  wharf,  and  what 
very  interesting  thing  happened  to  Benny.  Give  time  to  each 
of  these  situations;  but,  of  course,  give  more  time  to  what 
happened  to  Benny. 

BETSY   ROSS   MAKES  THE   FLAG 

Before  you  begin  to  write,  fancy  yourself  living  back  in 
Revolutionary  days.  From  pictures  you  have  seen,  imagine 
a  sitting-room  —  its  leaded  casement  windows,  the  white 
sash  curtains,  the  blooming  plant  on  the  wide  sill,  the  pewter 
dishes  shining  in  a  row  on  the  shelf,  the  bare  floor,  the  spinning 
wheel.  It  is  in  this  room  that  you  find  Betsy  Ross  when  you 
make  a  call;  and  it  is  with  the  call  that  you  begin  the  story. 

She  is  placing  pieces  of  cloth  together,  —  red,  white,  and 
blue  pieces,  —  some  cut  in  stripes  and  some  cut  in  stars. 
You  wonder  what  she  is  doing.  She  explains  it  all  to  you,  as 
you  sit  sewing,  or  chatting  over  a  cup  of  tea:  how  the  pieces 
were  obtained;  why  red,  white,  and  blue  were  chosen;  how 


THE  MAIN  INCIDENT  75 

the  flag  was  to  be  set  together;  and  what  it  would  be  the  sym- 
bol of.  Introduce  into  your  account  from  time  to  time,  as  it 
seems  best,  some  of  the  details  of  the  room  you  have  imagined, 
and  the  striking  features  of  the  dress  and  face  of  the  Betsy 
Ross  you  see.  Put  your  chief  thought,  however,  on  the  story 
itself.  Tell  it  in  a  dialogue,  if  you  Hke;  or  you  may  have  Betsy 
Ross  tell  the  whole  story. 

THE  MAIN  INCIDENT 

The  study  has  now  carried  us  to  the  point  where  we 
are  ready  to  make  some  application  of  the  principles 
we  have  learned.  If  a  writer  wishes  to  select  material 
that  contributes  to  the  one  central  thought;  if  he  wishes 
to  arrange  the  material  so  that  each  new  incident  helps 
the  reader  forward  with  the  story;  if  he  wishes  to  keep 
the  reader's  attention  up  to  the  very  last,  one  simple 
rule  is  of  great  value.    It  is  this:  — 

First  choose  the  main  incident,  toward  which  all  the  other  inci- 
dents converge,  and  for  which  all  the  preceding  incidents  are 
necessary. 

There  should  be  in  each  story,  however  slight  the  plot, 
some  incident  that  is  more  important  than  the  others, 
and  toward  which  all  the  others  converge.  A  reader 
is  disappointed  if,  after  reading  the  story  through,  he 
finds  that  there  is  no  worthy  ending,  that  all  the  pre- 
paration has  been  made  for  no  purpose.  If,  in  The 
Spectre  Bridegrooniy  Irving  had  stopped  just  after  the 
"  bird  had  flown,"  it  would  have  been  an  unsatisfactory 
story.  It  would  have  had  no  ending.  It  is  because  a 
story  gets  somewhere  that  we  like  it.  Yet  not  just  any- 
where; a  story  must  arrive  at  a  place  worthy  of  all  the 
preparation  that  has  preceded. 

A  very  common  fault  with  the  compositions  of  young 
persons  is  that  they  begin  big  and  end  little.  It  is  not 
infrequent  that  the  first  incident  promises  well;  the 


76  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

second  is  not  quite  so  good;  and  the  others  gradually 
fall  off  until  the  end  is  worthless.  The  order  should  be 
changed.  Have  the  first  paragraph  promise  well;  make 
the  second  better;  and  write  the  others  so  that  the  last 
shall  be  best  of  all.  The  main  incident  should  be  made 
more  interesting  than  any  incident  that  precedes  it. 
Get  the  main  incident  in  mind  before  beginning;  be 
very  sure  that  it  is  the  main  incident;  then  bend  all 
your  energies  to  make  it  the  incident  toward  which 
all  the  other  incidents  converge. 

The  main  incident  is  placed  at  the  end  of  a  story  be- 
cause it  is  the  result  of  the  other  incidents,  and  because 
by  being  there  it  holds  the  reader's  interest  to  the  last. 
Moreover,  it  should  be  found  at  the  end  of  a  story, 
if  the  writer  observes  the  second  principle  of  structure, 
Mass.  An  essay  is  well  massed  if  the  parts  are  so  ar- 
ranged that  the  things  of  importance  will  arrest  the  at- 
tention. The  positions  that  catch  the  attention  in  sen- 
tence, paragraph,  or  essay,  are  the  beginning  and  the 
end.  Since  the  mind  usually  retains  the  clearest  im- 
pression of  the  thing  it  received  last,  the  end  of  a  sen- 
tence, a  paragraph,  or  an  essay  leaves  a  stronger  impres- 
sion than  does  the  beginning.  The  climax  of  a  story, 
then,  should  come  at  the  end,  because  it  is  the  result  of 
the  preceding  incidents,  and  because  by  this  position 
it  receives  additional  emphasis. 

The  beginning  of  a  story  is  the  position  of  second  im- 
portance. What,  then,  shall  stand  in  this  place?  In  ways, 
a  story  resembles  a  puzzle.  The  solution  of  the  puzzle 
is  given  at  the  end;  the  thing  of  next  importance  is  the 
conditions  of  the  puzzle.  The  conditions  of  a  story  must 
be:  first,  the  persons;  second,  the  place;  third,  the 
time;  fourth,  the  situation.  By  situation  is  signified  the 
relation  of  the  different  elements  in  the  story  at  the 


THE  MAIN  INCIDENT  77 

time  the  action  begins.  These  conditions,  answering 
the  questions  Who?  Where?  When?  and  What?  are 
all  introduced  as  near  the  beginning  of  the  narrative 
as  is  possible.  In  a  short  story,  they  may  often  be  found 
in  the  first  paragraph;  in  a  long  novel,  in  the  first  few 
chapters.  In  Marmioriy  the  time,  the  place,  and  the 
principal  character  are  introduced  in  the  first  canto. 
Irving  begins  The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow  with  the 
place,  and  soon  after  come  the  characters.  In  all  stories 
the  beginning  is  used  to  give  the  conditions. 

With  the  conditions  clearly  set  out  at  the  beginning, 
and  the  main  incident  at  the  end,  a  composition  will  be 
rid  of  worthless  introductions  and  trailing  conclusions. 
A  story  should  get  under  way  at  once;  and  any  unneces- 
sary explanations  at  the  beginning,  the  introduction 
of  long  descriptions  or  tiresome  paragraphs  of  "  fine 
writing,"  will  be  headed  off  if  the  writer  keeps  con- 
stantly in  mind  that  everything  must  lead  directly 
toward  the  main  incident.  And  further,  if  everything 
has  converged  toward  the  main  incident,  then,  when 
that  is  told,  the  story  is  finished.  After  that  there  must 
be  no  explanations,  no  moralizing,  nothing.  When  the 
story  has  been  told,  stop. 

An  excellent  example  of  a  story  well  told  is  An  In- 
cident of  the  French  Camp,  by  Robert  Browning.  Only 
the  absolutely  necessary  has  been  introduced.  The  inci- 
dents flash  before  the  reader.  Nothing  can  be  said  after 
the  last  line. 

AN  INCIDENT  OF  THE  FRENCH  CAMP 

You  know,  we  French  storm'd  Ratisbon: 

A  mile  or  so  away 
On  a  little  mound.  Napoleon 

Stood  on  our  storming  day;  — 


78  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

With  neck  out-thrust,  you  fancy  how. 

Legs  wide,  arms  locked  behind. 
As  if  to  balance  the  prone  brow 

Oppressive  with  its  mind. 

Just  as  perhaps  he  mused,  "  My  plans 

That  soar,  to  earth  may  fall. 
Let  once  my  army-leader  Lannes 

Waver  at  yonder  wall,"  — 
Out  'twixt  the  battery-smokes  there  flew 

A  rider,  bound  on  bound 
Full-galloping;  nor  bridle  drew 

Until  he  reached  the  mound. 

Then  oflF  there  flung  in  smiling  joy. 

And  held  himself  erect 
By  just  his  horse's  mane,  a  boy: 

You  hardly  could  suspect  — 
(So  tight  he  kept  his  lips  compressed. 

Scarce  any  blood  came  through) 
You  looked  twice  ere  you  saw  his  breast 

Was  all  but  shot  in  two. 

"Well,"  cried  he,  "Emperor,  by  God's  grace 

We've  got  you  Ratisbon! 
The  Marshal 's  in  the  market-place. 

And  you'll  be  there  anon 
To  see  your  flag-bird  flap  his  vans 

Where  I,  to  heart's  desire. 
Perched  him!"  The  chief's  eye  flashed;  his  plans 

Soared  up  again  like  fire. 

The  chief's  eye  flashed;  but  presently 

Softened  itself,  as  sheathes 
A  film  the  mother-eagle's  eye 

When  her  bruised  eaglet  breathes; 
"You're  wounded!"   "Nay,"  the  soldier's  pride 

Touched  to  the  quick,  he  said: 
"I'm  killed.  Sire!"    And  his  chief  beside. 
Smiling  the  boy  fell  dead. 


THE  MAIN  INCIDENT  79 

EXERCISE 

-  1.  Below  are  given  the  endings  of  three  little  stories. 
Select  one  of  them,  and  write  what  you  think  must  have 
happened  before  to  bring  about  such  an  ending.  Re- 
member what  you  must  include  at  the  beginning  of  your 
story. 

1.  The  mother  stood  at  the  bedside,  smiling  down  at  the 
sleeping  boy.  His  tousled  head  lay  buried  in  the  pillow; 
his  flushed  cheek  still  bore  the  tear-stains  of  the  afternoon. 
She  thought  to  herself,  "I  know  he 's  mischievous  and  often 
does  wrong;  but  after  all,  he's  no  coward.  And  he's  truth- 
ful and  honest  and  brave  as  he  has  shown  to-day;  and  I'm 
proud  of  him." 

2.  Father  looked  thoughtful,  but  said  nothing;  Mother  could 
scarcely  conceal  the  smile  which  played  about  her  mouth. 
All  she  said,  when  we  had  finished  our  story,  was,  "Well, 
you  children  do  beat  all  to  plan  things!  Who  but  you 
two  would  have  thought  of  doing  that?"  And  we  knew 
from  her  voice  and  her  smile  that  she  was  pleased. 

3.  Betty  could  restrain  her  tears  no  longer.  No  one  was  near, 
so  she  sat  down  on  the  front  steps  and  cried  softly  to  her- 
self. Sam  came  around  the  corner  of  the  house  at  that 
moment,  bat  in  hand,  on  his  way  to  join  the  other  boys 
on  the  play-ground.  He  realized  at  once  the  cause  of  his 
sister's  grief.  He  hesitated  a  bit,  and  then  stepping  up  to 
her  side  said,  earnestly,  "Betty,  indeed  I'm  very  sorry. 
I  wish  I  had  n't  done  it." 

2.  Below  are  given  the  beginnings  of  several  good 
stories.  Find  what  conditions  of  the  story  are  told  in 
each  —  the  time,  the  place,  the  characters,  the  reason. 
Sometimes  time  and  place  are  not  definitely  told,  yet 
it  is  possible  from  some  little  phrase  to  reason  out  when 
and  where. 

Choose  the  beginning  you  prefer,  and  write  what 
you  think  would  be  the  ending.  To  do  this  it  will 
be  necessary  for  you  to  think  the  story  through  to  the 


80  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

end.     Remember  that  the  ending  will  be  the  main 
incident. 

1.  At  five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  tenth  of  July,  1860, 
the  front  door  of  a  certain  house  on  Anchor  Street,  in  the 
ancient  seaport  town  of  Rivermouth,  might  have  been 
observed  to  open  with  great  caution.  This  door,  as  the 
least  imaginative  reader  may  easily  conjecture,  did  not 
open  itself.  It  was  opened  by  Miss  Margaret  Callaghan, 
who  immediately  closed  it  softly  behind  her,  paused  for  a 
few  seconds  with  an  embarrassed  air  on  the  stone  step, 
and  then,  throwing  a  furtive  glance  up  at  the  second  story 
windows,  passed  hastily  down  the  street  towards  the 
river. 

2.  Old  Moses  Taylor  sat  in  front  of  his  log  cabin  mending 
a  bear  trap.  It  was  in  the  autunm  of  a  year  in  the  early 
settlement  period  of  Kentucky,  when  the  pioneers  still 
waged  war  against  their  enemies,  —  the  Indians,  and  the 
wild  animals  of  the  forest. 

S.  There  were  once  five  and  twenty  tin  soldiers,  all  brothers, 
for  they  were  the  offspring  of  the  same  old  tin  spoon. 
Each  man  shouldered  his  gun,  kept  his  eyes  well  to  the 
front,  and  wore  the  smartest  red  and  blue  uniform  imagin- 
able. The  first  they  heard  in  their  new  world,  when  the 
lid  was  taken  off  the  box,  was  a  little  boy  clapping  his 
hands  and  crying,  "Soldiers,  soldiers!"  All  the  soldiers 
were  exactly  alike  with  one  exception,  and  he  differed 
from  the  rest  in  having  only  one  leg.  For  he  was  made 
last,  and  there  was  not  quite  enough  tin  left  to  finish  him. 
However,  he  stood  just  as  well  on  his  one  leg  as  the  others 
on  two;  in  fact,  he  is  the  very  one  who  is  to  become  famous. 

4.  I  live  at  No. Twenty-sixth  Street,  in  this  city.   The 

house  is  a  curious  one.  It  has  enjoyed  for  the  last  two  years 
the  reputation  of  being  haunted. 

5.  It  was  the  day  before  the  great  boat  excursion.  Nearly 
all  of  the  school  were  going.  Little  groups  had  gathered 
in  the  classroom  or  on  the  playground  and  discussed  the 
coming  joy  for  a  whole  week  past.  Emily  Dana's  mother 
had  finished  the  pretty  gingham  Emily  was  to  wear,  and 
it  lay  spread  out  on  the  bed  in  the  spare  room  upstairs, 
by  the  side  of  the  new  hat  with  roses  on  it.  The  girls  were 


WHAT  SHALL  GO  INTO  A  STORY  81 

glad  Emily  was  going;  she  was  always  so  good-natured 
and  jolly. 

"She  is  the  most  unselfish  girl  I  ever  knew,"  Alice 
Russell  said  to  her  friend,  as  they  walked  home  together 
from  school  that  day. 

Emily  at  that  moment  was  sitting  at  the  window  of  her 
own  Httle  room  at  home.  She  was  thinking,  and  in  the 
lines  about  her  closely  drawn  mouth,  one  could  see  a  firm 
resolve.  "Yes,  I  beheve  I'll  do  it,"  she  said  half  aloud 
to  herself.  "I  have  so  many  pleasures,  I  can  afford  to  do 
it.  I'll  go  now  and  attend  to  it." 
6.  Polly  Caruthers  had  been  invited  to  come  to  spend  the 
day  with  me.  Mother  had  gone  away  to  New  Brighton 
to  do  some  much  needed  shopping,  leaving  me  the  entire 
charge  of  the  house  and  of  my  young  brother,  Billy.  But 
that  brother!  You  know  Billy,  and  you  know  how  mis- 
chievous he  is,  and  how  he  dislikes  to  have  me  in  com- 
mand. He  is  only  a  little  younger  than  I  am  in  years,  but 
Mother  often  says  that  I  am  twice  as  old  as  he  is  in 
judgment,  and  that's  why  I'm  left  to  look  after  things 
while  she 's  gone.  Well,  Polly  came,  and  for  a  while  every- 
thing went  beautifully.  Billy  is  n't  what  you  'd  call  mean- 
spirited,  you  know,  but  he  does  love  to  torment  any  one 
and  try  to  get  the  upper  hand  whenever  he  can. 

WHAT  SHALL  GO  INTO  A  STORY 

When  once  it  has  been  decided  what  are  to  be  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  a  story,  the  next  question 
is,  what  shall  go  into  the  story.  A  writer  is  helped 
to  answer  this  question  by  his  choice  of  a  main  inci- 
dent; for,  conforming  to  the  principle  of  Unity,  he 
must  include  all  that  is  necessary  to  bring  about  the 
ending,  and  he  must  exclude  everything  that  does  not 
help. 

The  W(5rld  is  full  of  incidents.  Any  day  at  a  busy 
corner  in  a  city  a  phonograph  and  a  camera  could  gather 
enough  to  fill  a  volume;  yet  these  pictures  and  these 
bits  of  conversation,  interesting  as  each  in  itself  might 


82  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

be,  would  not  be  a  unit  —  would  be  not  parts  of  one 
story,  but  many  separate  stories.  Few  persons  would 
write  anything  as  disjointed  as  the  report  made  by  a 
phonograph ;  yet  many  a  writer — even  among  those  with 
experience  —  has  been  led  astray  by  some  very  inter- 
esting episode  that  he  wished  to  tell.  One  incident  calls 
up  another;  paragraph  follows  paragraph  naturally; 
and,  before  he  knows  it,  the  writer  has  forgotten  that 
his  course  was  marked  out  for  him  when  he  chose  his 
main  incident.  He  has  left  the  main  road  —  he  has  di- 
gressed, and  he  must  now  get  back  to  the  road.  This 
phrase  of  Kipling's  should  ring  in  every  story-teller's 
ear  :  *'  But  that  is  another  story."  Do  not  digress; 
tell  one  story  at  a  time.  Keep  your  eye  on  the  main 
incident;  and  exclude  everything  that  does  not  un- 
questionably contribute  to  it. 

You  know  now  what  is  to  be  excluded  from  a  story; 
and  the  question  that  next  arises  is.  What  shall  I  in- 
clude? Again  the  main  incident  will  be  the  guide;  for 
every  detail  must  be  included  that  is  necessary  to  make 
the  main  incident  possible.  A  young  person  wrote  about 
a  party  in  the  woods.  To  reach  the  place  it  was  necessary 
to  take  a  train.  The  girls  had  found  seats  in  a  railway 
car,  and  were  chatting  with  their  friends,  when  they 
felt  a  sudden  lurch;  and  soon  one  of  the  party  was  be- 
smeared with  the  sticky  whites  of  eggs.  Now,  if  eggs 
were  in  the  habit  of  clinging  to  the  roofs  of  cars  and 
breaking  at  unfortunate  moments,  there  would  be  no 
need  of  any  explanation;  but  in  this  case  the  cook  had 
been  in  a  great  hurry  and  had  neglected  to  boil  the 
eggs,  and  one  of  the  girls  had  put  them  into  the  rack 
herself.  Enough  of  this  should  have  been  told  to  make 
the  misfortune  a  possibility. 

Stories  are  full  of  surprises;  but,  if  they  are  well  told, 


WHAT  SHALL  GO  INTO  A  STORY  83 

the  surprises  can  easily  be  understood  from  the  pre- 
ceding incidents.  In  the  end  of  Our  New  Neighbors  at 
Ponkapog,  the  surprise  has  been  so  well  arranged  for 
that  the  wonder  is  that  it  is  not  guessed  long  before  the 
conclusion.  Any  surprise  must  be  natural  —  the  result 
of  causes  at  work  in  the  story,  or  else  of  circumstances 
always  happening  and  by  themselves  no  surprise.  If  the 
story  be  a  tangled  web  of  incidents,  as  in  Jackanapes, 
many  details  must  be  included;  for  it  would  be  impossible 
to  see  the  golden-haired  hero  of  the  conclusion  in  the 
little  baby  "  morsel  of  humanity,"  which  came  to  dwell 
on  "  the  Green."  It  needed  the  generous  mischief  of 
childhood  and  the  noble  courage  of  boyhood  to  make  the 
reader  ready  for  Jackanapes's  lofty  disdain  of  death 
when  a  fellow-soldier  was  in  danger.  Similarly,  a  reader 
could  not  harmonize  the  idea  of  "  old  Scrooge,"  gained 
in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Christmas  Carol,  with  the 
generous  Mr.  Scrooge  of  the  last  without  the  inter- 
vening chapters.  Keeping  the  main  incident  in  mind, 
include  everything  that  is  necessary  to  make  that  in- 
cident possible. 

If  every  incident  gives  real  help  to  the  story,  there 
will  be  a  fortunate  scarcity  of  silly  and  useless  events, 
which  often  fill  up  the  compositions  of  young  people. 
Such  essays  often  start  off  with  "  One  bright  morning, 
a  party  of  four  of  us,"  and,  after  recounting  a  dozen 
incidents  of  no  consequence  whatever,  conclude  with 
the  familiar  "  We  came  home  to  a  late  supper,  well  re- 
paid for  our  day's  outing."  Such  compositions  may  be 
entirely  correct  in  the  choice  of  words,  in  sentence  and 
paragraph  structure,  and  yet  be  very  flat  and  worthless. 
There  is  nothing  to  them;  they  leave  no  single  clear 
impression.  Instead  of  writing  in  this  aimless  fashion, 
pick  out  one  of  the  incidents.  Work  it  up  into  a  story. 


84  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

Always  remember  that  a  short  anecdote  well  told  is 
worth  more  than  pages  of  aimless  wandering. 

EXERCISE 

Select  one  of  the  incidents  from  your  diary  or  jour- 
nal, assigned  on  page  64  ;  make  a  good  story  of  it.  Do 
not  hesitate  to  let  your  imagination  help  you,  if  you 
think  of  something  that  would  make  the  story  better 
than  it  really  was.   Most  story-writers  have  to  do  this. 

WHO  SHALL  TELL  THE  STORY 

There  is  one  more  condition  that  influences  the  selec- 
tion of  material :  it  makes  a  difference  who  tells  the  story. 

If  one  of  the  actors  tells  the  story,  he  cannot  be  sup- 
posed to  know  all  that  the  other  characters  do  when  out 
of  sight  and  hearing,  nor  can  he  know  what  they  think. 
Take  an  illustration  from  a  pupil's  essay,  the  substance 
of  which  is  as  follows:  A  girl  took  her  baby  sister 
out  on  the  lake  in  a  row-boat.  A  violent  storm  arose, 
lashing  the  lake  into  a  fury.  The  oars  were  wrenched 
from  her  hands.  Helpless  upon  the  water,  how  was 
she  to  be  saved?  Up  to  this  point  in  the  essay,  the 
writer  had  told  the  incidents  in  the  first  person;  that 
is,  she,  an  actor,  told  just  what  she  did  and  what  she 
knew.  But  here  she  recited  a  great  amount  of  detail 
about  what  her  mother  was  doing  at  home,  telling  her 
conversation  with  other  members  of  the  family  and  of 
her  terrible  fright  lest  her  children  should  be  drowned. 
These  things  the  girl  could  not  have  known  in  her  char- 
acter of  chief  actor  in  this  story,  though  she  could  have 
learned  about  them  afterwards.  These  things  she  should 
have  excluded  altogether;  or,  if  necessary  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  story,  she  should  have  introduced  them 


WHO  SHALL  TELL  THE  STORY  85 

with  some  such  words  as,  "  I  learned  afterwards,"  or 
"  That  night  they  told  me."  Stevenson,  the  skillful 
story-teller,  makes  no  such  mistake  in  Kidnapped.  In 
the  vivid  story  of  the  battle  at  the  round  house,  David, 
the  principal  actor  and  the  one  who  tells  the  story,  tells 
nothing  that  he  could  not  have  seen  or  heard  while  he 
was  holding  the  round  house,  not  one  thing  that  he 
must  have  learned  afterward.  It  would  be  interesting 
to  know  what  those  old  sailors  were  saying  and  doing 
outside;  but  David  cannot  tell,  for  he  does  not  know. 

Many  stories,  probably  most  stories,  are  told  in  the 
third  person.  In  this  case  the  author  assumes  the  role 
of  an  all- wise  power,  who  knows  everything  that  is  done, 
said,  or  thought  by  any  of  the  characters.  Not  only 
what  happens  in  the  next  room,  but  what  is  thought 
at  the  other  side  of  the  world  is  comprehended  in  his 
great  wisdom.  This  is  the  position  assumed  by  Irving 
in  The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow,  by  Mrs.  Ewing  in 
Jackanapesy  by  Dickens  in  The  Tale  of  Two  Cities,  and 
by  most  great  novelists.  While  most  of  us  may  know, 
or  think  we  know,  what  we  should  do  in  certain  con- 
ditions, to  be  able  to  know  what  some  other  person  would 
do  and  think  under  the  same  circumstances  requires  a 
sure  knowledge  of  character,  and  the  ability  to  become 
for  a  time  a  person  entirely  unlike  one's  self.  On  the 
whole,  it  is  possibly  better  for  the  beginner  to  take  the 
point  of  view  of  one  of  the  actors,  and  to  tell  the  story 
in  the  first  person.  As  he  becomes  more  practiced  in 
story-telling,  he  may  assume  the  wider  role. 

To  sum  up  what  has  been  said  about  the  selection  of 
material  for  a  story  :  —  know  what  story  you  are  going 
to  tell ;  let  no  other  story  in,  however  good  it  may  be  ; 
include  every  detail  necessary  to  make  the  whole  story 
consistent,  and  the  outcome  of  the  story  probable. 


86  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

EXERCISE 

1.  Here  are  the  outlines  of  two  stories.  Choose  one 
of  them  to  rewrite,  as  directed.  It  will  be  very  different 
from  the  story  as  it  is  given  here. 

1.  Mrs.  Raymond  had  gone  shopping  on  this  April  day.  No 
umbrella  except  an  old  one  was  at  home;  so  she  carried 
that.  In  the  store  she  leaned  it  against  the  counter  while 
she  made  her  purchases.  When  she  had  finished,  she  put 
her  hand  down  to  take  her  umbrella.  Her  wrist  was 
seized  by  a  strange  woman  at  her  side. 

"No,  you  don't,"  exclaimed  the  woman.  "Let  go  of  my 
umbrella." 

Mrs.  Raymond  looked  down  and,  to  her  astonishment, 
saw  that  she  did  not  have  her  own  umbrella,  but  was  hold- 
ing a  fine,  new  silk  one;  while  her  own,  slit  and  disreputable, 
leaned  against  the  counter.  She  made  profuse  apologies, 
which  were  coldly  received  by  the  woman,  with  uplifted 
eyebrows. 

Later  in  the  day,  the  sun  came  out;  and  Mrs.  Raymond, 
remembering  that  her  husband  had  left  their  other  better 
umbrellas  to  be  mended,  called  at  the  shop  for  them.  With 
the  three  umbrellas  strapped  together,  she  stepped  on  the 
street-car  to  go  home.  As  she  sat  there,  she  became  con- 
scious of  the  steady  gaze  of  some  one  sitting  opposite  her. 
She  looked  up  and  saw  the  woman  of  the  morning  inci- 
dent, smiling  at  the  bundle  of  umbrellas  at  her  side. 

"A  very  profitable  morning,  after  all,  I  see,"  the  woman 
remarked  significantly. 

Now  tell  this  story  as  the  mistaken  woman  told  it  to 
her  family  at  dinner  that  night. 

2.  When  the  Princess  Victoria  was  a  little  girl,  before  she  was 
queen,  she  was  allowed  one  time  to  make  a  visit  of  several 
days  to  her  uncle  and  her  aunt,  the  King  and  the  Queen  of 
England.  Victoria's  mother,  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  was 
exceedingly  careful,  even  strict,  in  the  child's  bringing  up; 
and  it  was  a  great  treat  for  the  Princess  to  make  this  visit 
unattended  by  her  mother. 


IN  WHAT  ORDER  SHALL  STORY  BE  TOLD    87 

Her  aunt  Adelaide,  the  Queen,  feared  that  Victoria 
would  be  lonely  in  the  quiet  palace  with  no  other  little 
people  to  amuse  her,  so  she  said  to  her,  *'My  dear,  I 
want  you  to  enjoy  your  visit  with  us  very  much,  and  I 
want  you  to  do  those  things  you  care  for  most.  There's 
the  fish-pond  with  many  little  fish  swimming  in  it,  and 
you  may  catch  them  if  you  like.  There 's  the  pony  wait- 
ing for  you  to  ride  him  in  the  park;  or  you  may  take  your 
hoop  and  trundle  it  up  and  down  the  garden  paths."  The 
child's  face  was  serious,  thoughtful.  The  Queen  saw  that 
she  had  not  yet  proposed  the  desired  thing. 

"What  is  it,  Victoria?  What  would  you  like  to  do.?'* 

**0h,  Aunt,  if  I  only  might,"  she  exclaimed  —  "I  have 
always  wanted  to  do  this,  and  I  have  never  been  allowed 
to.  Do  you  suppose  —  oh,  please.  Aunt  Adelaide,  may 
I  wash  the  windows .''" 

And  Victoria  was  given  plenty  of  cloths,  and  soap,  and 
water,  and  allowed  to  wash  windows  to  her  heart's  con- 
tent. 

Rewrite  this  incident  and  tell  it  from  the  child's 
point  of  view.  Imagine  yourself  to  be  Victoria  and  try 
to  feel  and  express  yourself  just  as  you  think  she  would. 
Let  her  tell  this  circumstance  to  her  mother,  on  her  re- 
turn home. 


IN  WHAT  ORDER  SHALL  THE  STORY  BE  TOLD 

Having  the  end  and  the  beginning  of  a  story  clearly 
in  mind,  and  knowing  the  material  that  is  to  be  included, 
the  writer  next  thinks  of  how  to  get  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end.  Shall  the  incidents  be  arrranged  in  the  order 
in  which  they  occurred?  Or  shall  other  considerations 
change  the  time  order?  If  the  story  be  a  narrative  of  the 
journal  form,  whether  a  diary  or  a  biography,  the  time 
order  will  direct  the  sequence  of  events.  Again,  if  it  be 
a  simple  plot  with  a  single  series  of  events,  time  order 
will  probably  prevail.     If,  however,  it  be  a  narrative 


88  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

with  several  series  of  events,  as  a  history  or  a  novel, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  deviate  from  the  time  sequence, 
and  there  will  be  broken  time  order. 

It  would  have  been  unskillful  for  Scott  to  hold 
strictly  to  time  order  in  Marmion.  After  introducing  the 
principal  character,  giving  the  time  and  the  setting,  it 
was  necessary  for  him  to  introduce  another  element 
of  the  plot  in  Constance,  and  to  go  backward  in  time  in 
order  to  pick  up  this  thread  of  the  sto^J^ 

We  have  seen,  also,  that  an  author  sometimes  wishes 
to  give  his  plot  interest  by  telling  an  effect  before  he 
discloses  its  cause;  this  was  the  case  in  The  Spectre 
Bridegroom.  In  such  a  story  it  is  manifestly  impossible 
to  observe  the  time  order.  Parts  of  such  a  story  will  be 
in  the  inverted  order. 

Unless  for  the  two  reasons  given,  —  one,  that  it  is 
impossible  for  an  author  to  tell  two  things  at  a  time; 
and  the  other,  that  sometimes  a  plot  is  improved  by 
disclosing  an  effect  before  its  cause  is  given,  —  a  story 
should  follow  the  order  in  which  the  events  happened. 
A  simple  story  always  follows  the  order  of  time;  and 
in  long  stories  and  novels  this  same  time  order  governs 
the  arrangement  of  most  of  the  incidents. 

There  is  one  exception  to  this  rule,  so  common  that 
it  should  be  noted.  It  is  necessary  to  have  at  the  very 
beginning  of  a  story  some  incident  that  will  arrest  the 
attention.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  persons,  place, 
and  time  shall  not  come  first.  They  should;  but  they 
should  be  so  introduced  as  to  make  an  interesting  open- 
ing to  the  story.  The  novels  of  some  years  ago  did  not 
recognize  this  principle  enough.  One  can  frequently 
hear  it  said  of  Scott's  stories,  **  I  can't  get  started  with 
them;  they  are  too  dry."  His  introductory  chapters 
are  often  uninteresting.   So  much  history  is  introduced. 


IN  WHAT  ORDER  SHALL  STORY  BE  TOLD    89 

so  much  scenery  is  described,  before  he  sets  out  his 
characters;  and  all  this  is  done  before  he  begins  the 
real  story.  Once  get  past  these  tedious  beginnings,  and 
Scott's  stories  are  fascinating.  But  novelists  of  to-day 
realize  that  they  must  interest  their  reader  at  the  begin- 
ning. When  they  have  caught  him,  they  are  certain 
that  he  will  bear  with  them  while  they  bring  up  the 
other  parts  of  the  story,  which  are  now  interesting  be- 
cause they  throw  light  on  what  has  already  been  told. 
Dramatists,  even  more  than  novelists,  recognize  this 
principle.  When  the  curtain  rises  on  the  first  act,  some- 
thing interesting  is  going  on.  The  action  often  begins 
far  along  in  the  whole  time  covered  by  the  play;  then, 
by  cleverly  arranged  conversation,  all  the  past  circum- 
stances necessary  to  the  understanding  of  the  story 
are  introduced.  The  audience  receives  these  minor,  yet 
essential,  details  with  no  impatience,  since  they  explain 
in  part  a  situation  already  interesting. 

One  practical  consideration  will  assist  in  arranging 
the  parts  of  a  story.  Use  an  outline.  It  will  help  you 
to  guard  against  the  omission  of  any  detail  that  may 
afterward  be  found  necessary,  and  so  against  the  neces- 
sity of  offering  the  apology,  inexcusable  in  prepared 
work,  of  "  I  forgot  to  say."  Moreover,  an  outline  will 
help  you  to  see  the  logical  and  the  best  arrangement 
of  the  parts  of  your  story.  Much  of  the  success  of  any 
story  is  due  to  skillful  arrangement,  concealing  or  dis- 
closing incidents  at  fortunate  times,  as  the  plot  may 
demand.  The  outline  in  narration  should  not  be  too 
much  in  detail;  nor  should  it  be  followed,  if,  as  the  story 
progresses,  new  light  comes,  and  you  see  a  better  way 
to  proceed.  In  such  a  case,  make  a  new  outline,  being 
sure  that  it  is  consistent  with  what  you  have  used  of 
the  old.    An  outline  is  a  most  valuable  servant  to  a 


90  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

writer;  but  a  writer  should  be  the  master  of  his  outhne, 
not  its  slave. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Below  are  given  the  outlines  of  three  stories,  with 
a  conclusion  for  each.  Choose  one  and  make  a  complete 
story.  The  conclusion  need  not  be  re- written. 

HOW    CONSTANCE   CONQUERED 

Introduction.  The  long  dreaded  time  had  come.  Constance 
was  allowed  to  remain  home  from  school  all  day,  so  that 
she  might  be  thoroughly  rested  and  in  good  trim  for  the 
evening.  In  all  the  fifteen  years  of  her  life  there  was  nothing 
that  Constance  Holbrough  had  ever  looked  forward  to  with 
so  much  mingled  anticipation  and  fear  as  that  recital.  She 
had  been  taking  lessons  on  the  piano  from  Madame  de 
Chanwix  for  four  years,  but  not  till  now  had  she  attained 
the  dignity  of  being  allowed  to  take  part  in  the  annual 
recital  of  great  Madame's  older  and  more  advanced  pupils. 

Body. 

1st  Paragraph.  Choosing  the  selection.  The  story  of  Beetho- 
ven's Moonlight  Sonata.  Practicing  to  master  the  selection. 
Uncle  GeoflF's  interest. 

2d  Paragraph.  Uncle  Geoff's  confidence  in  Constance.  His 
encouragement.  Offers  to  reward  her  if  she  is  successful. 
Constance  plays  the  Sonata  well  at  last,  but  best  in  the 
moonlight. 

Sd  Paragraph.  Dressing  for  the  recital. 

4th  Paragraph.  The  gathering  of  the  guests.  Madame's  ap- 
pearance. Uncle  Geoff  there. 

5th  Paragraph.  The  concert  begins.  Constance  attempts  to 
play  and  fails. 

6th  Paragraph.  Constance's  feelings  as  the  recital  proceeds. 

7th  Paragraph.  Uncle  Geoff's  note  of  encouragement. 

8th  Paragraph.  Constance's  decision.  She  asks  Madame  to  be 
allowed  to  try  again,  and  to  have  no  light  but  moonlight. 

9th  Paragraph.  Madame  tells  her  guests  briefly  the  history 
of  the  Moonlight  Sonata;  and  then  the  lights  are  lowered. 

10th  Paragraph :  Main  incident.  Constance  plays.  Her  suc- 
cess. The  applause. 


IN  WHAT  ORDER  SHALL  STORY  BE  TOLD    91 

Conclusion.  With  a  half  timid  bow,  she  reached  her  seat  just 
as  the  lovely  little  bouquet  of  pink  roses  was  handed  to  her. 
As  the  cheering  finally  ended,  and  the  last  number  was  being 
given,  Constance  came  gradually  to  herself,  and  knew  that 
she  had  vindicated  the  faith  of  her  dear  ones  and  scored  the 
success  of  the  evening.  Attached  to  her  bouquet  was  a  little 
envelope,  and  from  it  she  drew  a  tiny  card  on  which  had  been 
hastily  scrawled,  — 

"  Confidence  intact.  Trip  to  Europe  safe.  Congratulations! 

Uncle  Geoff." 

"But  it  was  only  Uncle  Geoff's  belief  in  me  that  did  it!" 
sighed  Constance  happily. 

THE  SHACK  IN  JONES'S  BACK  YARD 

Introduction.  Three  friends,  Chad  Taylor,  and  Tom  and  Fred 
Jones,  brothers,  decide  to  build  a  shack.  It  is  to  be  erected 
in  the  back  yard  of  the  Jones's  home  early  in  vacation. 

Body 
I.  Building  the  shack. 

a.  Collecting  materials  and  building  the  shack. 

b.  They  move  in  and  prepare  to  enjoy  it. 

c.  Cook  supper  and  sit  about  the  fire  afterward,  telling 
stories. 

n.  Enemies  in  the  neighborhood. 

a.  Those  "Kelly  kids,"  not  having  been  invited  to  join 
the  enterprise,  ridicule  the  architecture  of  the  building. 

b.  A  war  of  words. 

c.  Threats  made  to  harm  the  shack  and  its  owners. 
HI.  Plans  thwarted,  and  dissensions  arise. 

o.  The  boys  plan  to  guard  their  premises  by  sleeping 
there,  but  receive  a  set-back. 

b.  Chad's  mother  objects  to  the  plan.   She  will  not  allow 
Chad  to  remain  out  all  night. 

c.  The  Jones  boys  laugh  at  Chad,  call  him  "sissy-boy." 
Angry  words  follow. 

d.  With  feelings  hurt,  Chad  plans  to  have  revenge  on 
his  companions. 

rV.  Carrying  out  the  plan  for  revenge. 

a.  Chad,  under  cover  of  darkness,  plays  the  r61e  of  the 
"Kelly  kids." 


92  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

b.  Attacks  the  shack  with  stones  and  clubs,  intending 
to  arouse  and  frighten  its  sleeping  inmates.  Calls 
names,  threatens,  challenges  them  to  come  out. 

c.  The  sudden  appearance  of  Mr.  Jones  and  the  bull-dog 
at  the  back  door  causes  Chad  to  flee.  « 

V.  (Climax.)  The  narrow  escape. 

a.  Chad  is  chased  by  the  dog  and  almost  caught. 

b.  Tall  grass  provides  a  shelter  until  quiet  is  restored. 

c.  Chad  sneaks  quietly  and  cautiously  home,  and  to  bed. 

Conclusion.  Chad  awoke  early  next  morning.  He  lay  think- 
ing of  last  night's  adventure.  He  smiled,  as  he  thought 
of  how  near  he  had  come  to  being  caught.  It  was  like 
those  boys  to  get  their  father  and  the  bull-dog  to  help 
them!  It  was  clear  that  they  were  scared  and  afraid  to 
come  out,  but  they  would  be  sure  to  brag  of  how  brave 
they  had  been.  He  smiled  again  over  the  pleasure  he 
would  have  in  drawing  them  out. 

The  boys  were  on  the  roof  of  the  shack,  busy  adding 
some  new  feature  to  the  structure,  when  Chad,  with  his 
hands  in  his  pockets,  lounged  leisurely  up.  He  had  de- 
cided, for  various  reasons,  to  let  the  boys  begin  the 
conversation.  He  was  n't  quite  sure  how  much  the  light 
streaming  from  the  open  kitchen  door,  the  night  before, 
had  revealed  as  to  the  identity  of  the  marauding  party. 
Silence  was  safer  yet  awhile,  anyhow. 

"Well,  Chad,  you  missed  some  fun  when  your  mother 
would  n't  let  you  come  over  last  night.  Just  as  we 
were  eating  supper.  Uncle  Jim  came  by  in  his  automo- 
bile, with  his  pocket  full  of  tickets  for  the  show,  and 
he  took  us  all  in  with  him.  He  had  more  tickets  than 
he  could  use,  too!  Oh,  it  was  great  fun!  Horses  and 
clowns  and  elephants  and  lemonade  —  it  is  too  bad  you 
were  n't  along,  Chad.  And  what  do  you  think  ?  That 
Kelly  gang  raided  our  shack  while  we  were  gone.  Dad 
saw  them,  and  Tige  nearly  caught  one  of  them." 

Chad  remembered  the  words  he  had  written  in  his 
copy-book  the  week  before  school  closed.  They  took  on 
a  real  meaning  to  him  now. 

"Speech  is  silvern;  silence  is  golden.** 


IN  WHAT  ORDER  SHALL  STORY  BE  TOLD    93 

AN  EXPERIENCE  IN  A   GARDEN 

Introduction.  How  Jane  and  Tommy  Graham,  brother  and 
sister,  are  continually  quarreling. 

Body. 
I.  How  Uncle  John,  who  comes  to  spend  the  summer  with 
them,  takes  note  of  how  matters  are,  but  says  nothing. 

II.  How  Uncle  John  and  the  children  plan  a  little  coopera- 
tive garden  on  a  vacant  and  rather  sandy  lot. 

m.  How  they  all  become  interested  in  the  growing  garden, 
watching  it,  weeding  it,  and  watering  it. 

IV.  How  Uncle  John  still  encourages  them  after  a  drouth 
sets  in  and  the  garden  begins  to  fail. 

Conclusion.  Day  after  day  the  sun  rose  seemingly  hotter 
than  ever;  and  the  rows  of  beans  and  peas,  in  spite  of  the 
care  given  them,  withered  and  dried.  The  long  leaves  on 
the  cornstalks  hung  in  flat,  brown  ribbons. 

Jane  slipped  out  early  one  morning  to  look  again  for 
some  sign  of  returning  life  in  the  little  garden.  Tommy 
was  already  there.  He  turned  his  head  quickly  away  as 
Jane  came  down  the  path,  but  not  in  time  to  hide  the 
fact  that  he  had  been  crying.  Jane  stopped.  It  was  a 
revelation  to  her.  Could  it  be  that  Tommy  cared  too? 
It  was  the  first  touch  of  common  sympathy  they  had 
ever  known.  "Oh,  brother,"  she  cried,  "do  you  feel  like 
that,  too?  I  did  n't  know  you  cared  so  much.  I'm  so 
sorry.  How  we've  worked!  and  how  hard  we've  both 
tried  to  save  it ! "  And  Jane's  arm  was  about  her  brother's 
neck,  and  their  tears  fell  together. 

As  the  family  sat  at  breakfast  a  little  later,  the  mother, 
looking  up  from  the  coffee  she  was  pouring,  noticed  the 
red,  swollen  eyes  of  the  two  children  on  either  side  of  her. 
"Why,  children,"  she  exclaimed,  "I  do  believe  you 
have  been  out  there  crying  over  that  garden.  But  no 
one  ever  could  raise  anything  on  that  sandy  place.  It 
always  is  a  failure." 

"But,  indeed,  this  garden  has  not  been  a  failure,"  spoke 
up  Uncle  John  quickly.  "  What  some  might  call  a  failure, 
often  turns  out  to  be  the  greatest  kind  of  success.'* 
And  Uncle  John  smiled  at  his  niece  and  his  nephew,  who 
understood  and  smiled  back  at  him. 


94  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

2.  Below  are  given  suggestions  for  four  stories.  The 
first  is  a  bare  outline;  the  second  and  the  third  are  the 
beginnings  of  two  good  stories;  and  the  last  is  a  main 
incident.  Pick  out  the  one  you  believe  you  could  make 
most  interesting,  and  make  an  outline  for  it.  Then 
write  it  out  fully. 

1.  You  have  often  noticed  the  blind  organ-grinder  and  his 
little,  old  wife,  at  the  busy  street-corner.  You  have  be- 
come interested  in  them  simply  from  seeing  them  there 
so  often.  One  evening,  as  you  were  passing  the  corner, 
you  saw  them  preparing  to  go  home.  The  thought  came 
to  you  to  follow  them,  and  from  curiosity  to  see  where 
they  lived  you  did  so.  You  went  through  a  part  of  the 
city  strange  to  you.  You  saw  the  house.  Was  it  what  you 
had  expected  to  see?  It  may  have  surprised  you;  or  per- 
haps it  was  just  as  you  fancied  an  organ-grinder's  home 
might  be.  [A  tiny  bit  of  description  could  be  given  here, 
but  give  only  a  little.]  You  entered  their  home.  You  saw 
them  at  the  table;  you  heard  what  they  said,  without 
yourself  being  seen.  [What  would  an  organ-grinder  and 
his  wife  be  likely  to  talk  about. ^^  Do  you  see  the  in- 
terior? Plan  something  interesting  for  their  conversation.] 

2.  Louise  Hapgood  was  a  fine  girl;  all  the  pupils  liked  her. 
At  recess  she  could  think  of  more  games  to  play  than  all 
the  others  together  could.  She  never  wanted  to  leave 
any  one  out,  either,  —  not  even  the  little  ones. 

One  day  we  were  right  in  the  midst  of  a  jolly  game  of 
"Drown  the  Duck,"  when  Louise  cried  out  suddenly, 
"Oh  stop!  stop!  Keep  still  a  minute.  Shame  on  us  all! 
We've  forgotten  something  we  should  do." 

S.  Bob  walked  down  the  street  scuffing  his  heels  and  hitting 
with  a  stick  anything  within  reach.  Things  had  gone 
wrong  at  home,  evidently.  Mother  had  sent  him  to  the 
store  and  he  had  left  the  house,  sulking,  banging  the  street- 
door  as  he  went.  At  the  corner  he  met  Pony  Barnes  and 
Hal  Greene  with  their  skates,  off  for  a  good  time  on  the 
ice.  "Naw,  I  can't  go,"  he  growled  in  answer  to  their  in- 
vitation to  join  them.  "Mother  won't  let  me,  and  besides 


MOVEMENT  IN  A  STORY  95 

I've  got  the  furnace  to  clean."  The  thought  came  to  him, 
though,  as  he  -watched  them  go  down  to  the  lake,  that 
perhaps  he  might  slip  off  and  go  anyhow. 

But  a  few  minutes  later,  as  he  was  returning  from  the 
store,  something  happened  which  made  him  very  glad 
that  he  had  not  yielded  to  the  temptation. 
4.  There  was  a  rap  at  the  school-room  door.  I  glanced  up  to 
see  who  the  visitor  could  be.  The  door  opened  quietly, 
and  in  stepped  —  Mother.  Of  all  afternoons,  why,  oh 
why,  did  she  choose  this  one?  Perhaps  she  would  speak 
to  the  teacher  a  moment  and  then  go?  But  no.  Miss  Mur- 
ray was  seating  her,  and  handing  her  a  book.  She  would 
stay,  too,  probably,  to  the  very  end;  and  then  —  I  would 
have  to  stand  up  with  all  the  others  and  confess;  and 
Mother  would  see,  and  hear  me  tell  of  my  wrong-doing;  and 
that  morning  I  had  meant  to  be  so  good !  I  glanced  at  the 
clock.  It  was  fifteen  minutes  to  four.  There  was  no  hope 
for  me.   She  would  stay. 

I  looked  steadfastly  at  my  book  and  pretended  to  be 
studying  my  next  day's  lesson.  But  I  wasn't;  I  was  trou- 
bled. I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  tell  the  truth,  no 
matter  what  might  happen  later.  Miss  Murray  would  not 
forget  to  ask  us;  she  never  did  forget. 

The  grammar  class  finished  its  lesson,  and  Miss  Murray 
called  for  attention.  "You  have  been  unusually  quiet 
and  studious  this  afternoon,  children,"  she  said,  "and  I 
am  pleased.  That  slight  disorder  of  this  morning  I  will 
inquire  into  to-morrow.  I  am  going  to  dismiss  you  on 
time  without  taking  up  that  matter  to-day." 

As  she  finished,  I  thought  Miss  Murray  looked  at  me  and 
smiled.  Just  then,  two  big  tears  rolled  down  and  splashed 
right  on  the  open  page  of  my  new  geography. 

MOVEMENT  IN  A  STORY 

Movement  is  an  essential  quality  of  narration;  a  story 
must  advance.  This  does  not  mean  that  a  story  shall 
always  go  at  the  same  rate,  though  it  does  mean  that  it 
shall  move.  If  a  story  were  as  tense  and  rapid  through- 
out as  it  is  at  its  climax,  it  would  be  very  tiresome. 


96  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

Music  that  is  all  thundering  passages  is  unbearable;  a 
picture  must  not  be  a  glare  of  high  lights.  The  quiet 
passages  of  music,  the  gray  tones  in  the  backgroimd  of  a 
picture,  the  slower  chapters  of  a  story,  are  as  necessary 
as  their  opposites;  indeed,  a  climax  is  dependent  upon 
a  contrast  in  order  to  be  a  climax. 

The  matter  of  movement  in  a  story  resolves  itself 
into  these  two  questions:  How  is  rapidity  of  movement 
obtained?  and,  How  can  a  writer  delay  the  movement? 
Rapidity  is  gained  by  the  omission  of  all  unnecessary 
details,  and  the  use  of  the  shortest  sentences  to  express 
what  is  absolutely  essential.  Dependent  clauses  will 
disappear;  and  either  the  sentences  will  be  simple,  — 
just  one  sharp  statement,  —  or  they  will  be  made  of 
coordinate  clauses  with  no  connectives.  Every  weight 
that  could  clog  the  story  must  be  thrown  away,  and  it 
should  run  with  the  swiftness  of  the  actions.  At  such 
times  it  would  be  a  waste  of  good  material  to  introduce 
beautiful  descriptions  or  wise  comments  upon  life.  Such 
things  would  be  skipped  by  the  reader.  Everything 
must  clear  the  way  for  the  story. 

The  reverse  of  what  has  been  said  about  rapidity  of 
movement  will  answer  the  second  question.  Slowness  of 
movement  is  secured  by  introducing  long  descriptions, 
analyses  of  character,  and  information  concerning  the 
customs  of  the  time.  This  could  not  be  better  illustrated 
than  in  Irving's  A  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow,  where  the 
story  loiters  leisurely  along  through  scenery  and  cus- 
toms, until  the  reader  has  almost  forgotten  what  the 
tale  is  about.  Sentences  become  long  and  involved; 
dependent  clauses  are  numerous;  connective  words  and 
phrases  are  very  frequent.  Needless  details  may  be 
introduced  until  almost  nothing  is  being  done.  Then  the 
story  is  tedious  because  it  has  no  movement. 


MOVEMENT  IN  A  STORY  97 

In  one  of  Maupassant's  stories  the  opening  paragraphs 
have  sentences  twenty-one  words  long,  but  a  paragraph 
where  the  action  is  intense  has  an  average  of  five  and 
one-half  words  to  the  sentence.  Poe's  Gold  Bug  changes 
from  thirty-eight  words  in  a  sentence  in  the  slow  parts 
to  twenty-one  words  in  a  sentence  where  the  action  is 
swift. 

Very  closely  connected  with  this  ratio  of  the  number 
of  words  to  the  rapidity  of  movement  is  another  fact. 
Strip  the  sentences  as  you  may,  the  verbs  will  still 
remain.  Verbs  and  words  derived  from  verbs  are  the 
words  that  most  certainly  denote  action.  As  words 
of  other  classes  are  taken  out,  the  ratio  of  verbs  to 
other  words  remaining  will  grow  larger;  and  an  in- 
creased ratio  of  verbs  will  mark  passages  in  which  the 
movement  is  more  rapid.  In  his  essays  Stevenson  uses 
a  verb  to  eight  words,  while  in  the  story  of  the  fight  in 
the  round  house  he  uses  a  verb  to  every  five  and  a  half 
words.  Longfellow's  The  Notary  of  Perigueux  starts 
with  a  verb  to  nine  words,  and  at  the  climax  has  a  verb 
to  five  words.  These  figures  mean  that  the  sentences 
are  shortened;  adjectives,  adverbs,  phrases,  connectives 
disappear.  Everything  not  absolutely  necessary  is  dis- 
carded in  order  to  express  rapid  movement. 

No  one  should  think,  however,  that  by  eliminating  all 
dependent  clauses,  cutting  away  all  unnecessary  mat- 
ters, and  putting  in  a  verb  to  every  four  words,  he  can 
gain  intensity  of  expression.  These  are  only;  accom- 
panying circumstances.  Climaxes  are  in  the  thought. 
V^hen  the  thought  moves  rapidly,  when  things  are  being 
done  with  a  rush,  when  the  climax  of  the  story  has  been 
reached,  then  a  writer  will  find  that  he  can  approach 
most  nearly  the  movement  of  the  action  by  using  these 
means. 


08  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

EXERCISE 

1.  Find  five  short  stories;  count  the  words  in  the 
slow  and  rapid  passages,  and  verify  the  statements  made 
in  this  section  about  (a)  the  length  of  sentences  and  (6) 
the  ratio  of  verbs  to  other  words. 

2.  Select  a  subject  that  will  give  you  a  chance  for  a 
vivid  passage  —  a  runaway,  a  fire,  an  accident,  the 
game  three  minutes  before  the  end.  Get  thoroughly 
into  the  spirit  of  it,  so  that  you  cannot  help  giving  life 
to  the  story,  and  then,  in  writing  it,  give  special  atten- 
tion to  movement. 

SOME  SUGGESTIONS 

1.  The  number  of  characters  should  be  small.  Young 
writers  are  not  able  to  handle  a  large  number  of  char- 
acters. There  is,  however,  a  stronger  reason  for  this 
than  its  difficulty.  No  readers,  whether  young  or  old, 
like  to  be  compelled  to  remember  a  large  number  of 
characters.  It  is  work.  Bleak  House  has  discouraged 
many  readers  with  its  host  of  people,  and  some  of  them 
must  remain  entire  strangers  to  even  the  lovers  of 
Dickens.  Such  a  scattering  of  attention  is  unfavorable 
to  a  story.  To  centre  the  attention  upon  a  few,  and  to 
hold  it  there,  increases  the  intensity  of  a  narrative. 
Short-story  writers  in  France,  like  Daudet  and  Mau- 
passant, and  the  best  of  English-speaking  short-story- 
tellers, like  Kipling,  Davis,  and  Henry,  find  few  char- 
acters all  that  are  necessary;  and  they  gain  a  keener 
interest  by  concentrating  the  attention  upon  these  few. 

2.  The  time  of  the  action  should  be  short.  If  all 
the  incidents  chosen  are  crowded  into  a  short  period  of 
time,  the  story  will  be  closely  knit  together,  and  the 
action  will  be  more  rapid.  A  reader  does  not  like  to 
know  that  five  years  have  elapsed  between  one  event 


SOME   SUGGESTIONS  99 

and  the  next,  even  though  the  story-teller  does  not  at- 
tempt to  fill  up  these  years  with  matter  of  little  con- 
sequence to  the  narrative.  One  exception  should  be 
made  to  this  rule.  In  stories  in  which  the  purpose  is  to 
portray  a  change  of  character,  a  long  time  is  necessary; 
for  the  transformation  is  not  usually  the  result  of  a  day's 
experience,  but  a  gradual  process  through  years  of 
little  changes.  Ernest  in  The  Great  Stone  Face  and  Silas 
Marner  require  years  to  mature.  In  general,  however, 
the  time  covered  by  a  story  should  be  short. 

3.  The  plot  should  be  sunple.  This  does  not  mean 
that  the  plot  should  be  evident.  No  one  is  satisfied  if 
he  knows  just  how  the  story  will  turn  out.  There  are, 
however,  so  many  conditions  in  a  story,  that  empha- 
sis on  one  or  subordination  of  another  may  bring  about 
something  quite  unexpected,  though  perfectly  natural. 
Complicated  plots  have  had  their  day;  simple  plots  are 
now  the  fashion.  They  are  as  natural  as  life,  and  quite 
as  puzzling.  In  Davis's  Gallagher,  there  is  nothing 
complicated;  one  thing  follows  another  in  a  perfectly 
natural  way;  yet  there  are  many  questions  in  the  read- 
er's mind  as  to  how  the  little  rascal  will  turn  out,  and 
whether  he  will  accomplish  his  mission.  A  story  that 
by  its  frank  simplicity  takes  the  reader  into  its  confi- 
dence, and  brings  him  to  a  conclusion  that  is  so  natural 
that  it  should  have  been  foreseen  long  before  the  end 
has  a  good  plot.  The  conclusion  of  a  story  must  be  natu- 
ral —  the  result  of  causes  at  work  in  the  story.  It  must 
be  a  surprise  that  should  have  been  expected.  If  it  can- 
not be  accounted  for  by  the  agents  at  work  in  the  story, 
the  construction  is  faulty.  A  story  with  a  simple,  natu- 
ral plot,  containing  but  few  characters,  and  covering 
only  a  short  period  of  time,  has  three  elements  of  suc- 
cess. 


100  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

4.  Paragraphs  in  narration  should  not  be  long.  The 
tendency  just  now  is  to  write  short  paragraphs.  This 
is  not  saying  that  every  sentence  or  every  four  lines  on 
a  page  should  make  a  paragraph.  There  is  a  principle 
underlying  a  paragraph,  as  there  is  a  principle  under- 
lying a  sentence.  A  sentence  is  the  complete  expression 
of  a  thought;  a  paragraph  is  the  complete  discussion  of 
a  topic.  A  group  of  words  may  be  so  short  that  it  is  not 
a  complete  sentence;  and  a  group  of  words  that  looks 
like  a  sentence  may  be  in  reality  two  or  three  sentences 
unhappily  combined  in  one.  In  this  respect,  paragraphs 
are  like  sentences.  Some  persons  like  to  write  bright- 
looking  paragraphs;  and  so  they  make  them  so  short 
that  they  are  not  paragraphs  at  all.  Others  are  care- 
less and  string  the  sentences  along  like  the  straggling 
phrases  attached  to  a  sentence.  To  avoid  these  mistakes, 
use  your  outline,  and  make  a  paragraph  for  each  topic 
you  have  planned.  If  one  of  the  topics  can  be  sub- 
divided into  smaller  topics,  generally  it  should  be;  and 
then  more  than  one  paragraph  should  be  written  upon 
such  a  division  of  the  outline.  It  certainly  would  be  well 
to  subdivide  if  a  paragraph  is  likely  to  be  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  words  long. 

It  has  already  been  stated  in  the  discussion  of  punctua- 
tion of  quotations  that,  in  reporting  a  conversation,  a 
writer  should  make  a  new  paragraph  whenever  the 
speaker  changes.  This  is  in  accord  with  our  idea  of  a 
paragraph;  for  this  group  of  words  is  one  person's  com- 
plete answer,  his  discussion  of  one  topic.  It  is,  then,  a 
paragraph;  and  it  should  be  set  off  by  indentation  of  the 
first  line,  the  same  as  any  other  paragraph.  Such  para- 
graphs will  usually  be  short  —  sometimes  but  part  of 
a  line.  But,  however  short  the  paragraph  may  be,  the 
new  paragraph  should  represent  the  new  speaker. 


y       J    >.    '     »    >        ' 


SOME  SUGGESTIONS-  -'  '  >'  ■'">  =  Hoi 

5.  Use  live  words.  After  a  story  has  been  arranged 
in  the  most  effective  order;  after  the  paragraphs  have 
been  written  so  that  each  sets  out  a  distinct  incident; 
after  the  sentences  have  been  so  formed  that  the  em- 
phasis falls  upon  the  right  idea;  there  is  still  left  the 
final  touch,  which  is  given  by  a  happy  choice  of  words. 
In  writing,  this  comes  last,  and  should  be  the  result  of 
careful  re-reading  of  the  effort.  The  purpose  of  this 
reading  should  be  to  present  the  story  in  the  most  vivid 
language  possible.  In  composition,  no  time  can  be  better 
spent  than  that  which  is  employed  in  studying  words. 
Scientists  tell  us  that  no  two  grains  of  sand  are  exactly 
alike;  and  neither  are  any  two  words  exactly  alike  in 
meaning.  The  man  who  knows  the  little  differences  in 
the  signification  of  words,  so  that  he  uses  them  cor- 
rectly, is  an  artist  in  language. 

In  narration  the  words  that  need  special  attention  are 
those  denoting  action.  These  are  primarily  verbs  and 
their  derivatives  —  participles,  gerunds,  and  infinitives. 
Yet  not  verbs  alone  are  responsible  for  the  vividness  of 
narration;  many  nouns,  adjectives,  and  adverbs  assist 
in  expressing  varieties  in  action.  The  foUo^dng  para- 
graph from  Stevenson's  The  Black  Arrow  exhibits  the 
value  of  care  in  the  choice  of  words :  — 

But  presently  the  little  troop  began  again  to  move  forward, 
and  came  next  to  a  very  open,  heathy  portion  of  the  way, 
where  but  a  single  tongue  of  forest  ran  down  to  join  the  road. 
They  were  but  just  abreast  of  this,  when  an  arrow  shone 
flying.  One  of  the  men  threw  up  his  arms,  his  horse  reared, 
and  both  fell  and  struggled  together  in  a  mass.  Even  from 
where  the  boys  lay  they  could  hear  the  rumour  of  the  men's 
voices  crying  out;  they  could  see  the  startled  horses  prancing, 
and,  presently,  as  the  troop  began  to  recover  from  their  first 
surprise,  one  fellow  beginning  to  dismount.  A  second  arrow 
from  somewhat  farther  off  glanced  in  a  wide  arch;  a  second 


lOS  FARMS' .OF  DISCOURSE 

rider  bit  the  dust.  The  man  who  was  dismounting  lost  hold 
upon  the  rein,  and  his  horse  fled  galloping,  and  dragged  him 
by  the  foot  along  the  road,  bumping  from  stone  to  stone,  and 
battered  by  the  fleeing  hoofs.  The  four  who  still  kept  the  sad- 
dle instantly  broke  and  scattered;  one  wheeled  and  rode, 
shrieking  to  the  ferry;  the  other  three,  with  loose  rein  and  fly- 
ing raiment,  came  galloping  up  the  road  from  Tunstall.  From 
every  clump  they  passed  an  arrow  sped.  Soon  a  horse  fell,  but 
the  rider  found  his  feet  and  continued  to  pursue  his  comrades 
till  a  second  shot  despatched  him.  Another  man  fell;  then 
another  horse;  out  of  the  whole  troop  there  was  but  one  fellow 
left,  and  he  on  foot;  only,  in  different  directions,  the  noise  of 
the  galloping  of  the  three  riderless  horses  was  dying  fast  in  the 
distance.^ 

The  next  paragraph  is  from  Foe's  Fall  of  the  House 
of  Usher:  — 

No  sooner  had  these  syllables  passed  my  lips,  than  I  be- 
came aware  of  a  distinct,  hollow,  metallic,  and  clangorous,  yet 
apparently  muflfled,  reverberation.  Completely  unnerved, 
I  leaped  to  my  feet;  but  the  measured,  rocking  movement  of 
Usher  was  undisturbed.  I  rushed  to  the  chair  in  which  he 
sat.  His  eyes  were  bent  fixedly  before  him,  and  throughout 
his  whole  countenance  there  reigned  a  stony  rigidity.  But, 
as  I  placed  my  hand  upon  his  shoulder,  there  came  a  strong 
shudder  over  his  whole  person;  a  sickly  smile  quivered  about 
his  lips;  and  I  saw  that  he  spoke  in  a  low,  hurried,  and  gibber- 
ing murmur,  as  if  unconscious  of  my  presence.  Bending  closely 
over  him,  I  at  length  drank  in  the  hideous  import  of  his  words. 

Now  note  the  deadening  effect  of  the  dull  words  that 
have  been  substituted  for  the  vivid  words  used  by  Foe :  — 

No  sooner  had  I  said  these  words,  than  I  became  aware  of 
a  clear,  empty,  hard,  and  noisy,  yet  apparently  deadened 
echo.  Completely  unnerved,  I  stood  up;  but  the  measured, 
rocking  movement  of  Usher  was  undisturbed.  I  went  to  the 
chair  on  which  he  sat.  His  eyes  looked  straight  before  him, 
and  throughout  his  whole  countenance  there  came  a  fixed 
expression.  But,  as  I  placed  my  hand  upon  his  shoulder, 
there  came  a  strong  shudder  over  his  whole  person;  a  sickly 

»  Copyright,  1888,  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.    By  permisBion  of  the  Publiahen. 


SOME   SUGGESTIONS  103 

smile  appeared  about  his  lips;  and  I  saw  that  he  spoke  in  a 
low,  quick,  and  indistinct  tone,  as  if  unconscious  of  my  pre- 
sence. Bending  closely  over  him,  I  at  length  drank  in  the  un- 
pleasant meaning  of  his  words. 

If  you  would  have  your  writing  fascinating,  pictur- 
esque, stirring,  and  spirited,  spend  time  in  the  choice 
of  words.  Choose  live  words,  specific  words,  words 
that  have  "  go  "  in  them. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  everything  cannot  be 
learned  at  once.  The  study  of  the  whole  composition 
is  the  main  thing  just  now.  Select  the  main  incident; 
choose  other  incidents  to  be  consistent  with  it;  start 
out  at  once,  giving  the  conditions  of  the  story;  proceed 
now  fast,  now  slow,  as  the  thought  demands,  arriving 
at  a  conclusion  that  might  have  been  expected  —  the 
result  of  forces  at  work  in  the  story. 

SUBJECTS  FOR  NARRATION 

1.  An  Act  of  Heroism. 

2.  My  Experience  in  Making  a  Garden. 
S.  A  Case  of  Discipline. 

4.  The  Time  Teacher  Forgot. 

5.  Mother  Knew  Best. 

6.  An  Unexpected  Vacation. 

7.  When  Father  Was  a  Little  Boy. 

8.  Big  Sister's  First  Beau. 

9.  The  Accident  at  the  Switch. 

10.  WTien Made  His  Famous  Start  (applicable  to  some 

aeronautic  feat). 

11.  My  First  Swim. 

12.  A  Night  on  the  Bread  Line. 

13.  When Won  the  Cup. 

14.  A  Coastwise  Trip  on  the . 

15.  My  Experience    in  Gathering  News  (a  reporter's  first 
effort  at  story-gathering). 

16.  Watching  the  Steeple  Climber. 

17.  Our  Trip  to  Grandmother's. 

18.  A  Day  with  the  Lighthouse  Keeper. 


104  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

19.  That  Dinner  I  Cooked. 

20.  It  Happened  on  a  Street-Car. 

21.  The  Cup  Slipped,  or  When  the  Joke  Turned. 

22.  A  Day  on  My  Wheel. 

23.  A  Mix-up  on  the  Telephone. 

24.  All  on  Account  of  Being  Late. 

25.  Getting  Mother  Interested. 

26.  Overheard  on  the  Telephone. 

27.  Ichabod  Crane  Visits  a  Modern  School. 

28.  Miss  Cynthy  Returns  from  the  City. 

29.  Unexpected  Callers. 

30.  The  Day  after  Sister's  Wedding. 

31.  The  Schoolroom  Clock. 

32.  Preparing  for  Company. 

33.  Getting  to  School  on  Time  under  DiflBculties. 

34.  Little  Mary  Entertains  the  Caller  with  the  Family  Album. 

35.  Following  the  Organ  Grinder. 

36.  Rip  Van  Winkle  in  a  Department  Store  (in  a  suffragette 
meeting,  at  an  air-ship  contest,  in  a  crowded  city  street, 
or  the  like). 

37.  Benjamin  Franklin  Views  the  Modem  Adaptations  of 
Electricity. 

38.  Darius  Green  and  Wilbur  Wright. 

39.  A  Game  of  Marbles. 

40.  A  Mother  Mouse  and  Her  Young  Ones. 

41.  The  Coming  Circus. 

42.  A  Story-Book  Character  and  I  Take  Lunch  Together. 

43.  "Stumping"  Him  to  Do  it. 

44.  Two  Little  Girls  and  a  Bag  of  Candy. 

45.  Studying  the  Latin  Lesson  Together. 

46.  The  New  Teacher  is  Discussed. 

47.  Playing  "Come  to  See." 

48.  Some  Birds  Discuss  the  Arrival  of  the  Aeroplane. 

49.  Getting  Acquainted. 

50.  Two  Girls  Parting. 

51.  The  Bargain  Counter. 

52.  Undressing  at  the  Swimming  Hole. 

53.  The  Birthday  Party. 

54.  When  Johnny  Watered  the  Elephant. 

55.  Talking  over  the  Aeroplane  Meet. 

56.  At  Lunch-time. 

67.  Sounds  from  the  Woodshed. 


CHAPTER  III 

FORMS  OF   DISCOURSE    (Continued) 
DESCRIPTION 

Description  has  been  defined  as  the  form  of  Hterature 
that  presents  a  picture  by  means  of  language.  In  the 
preceding  chapter  it  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  se- 
quence of  language  is  well  adapted  to  detail  the  sequence 
of  action  in  a  narrative.  For  the  purpose  of  presenting 
a  picture,  language  has  serious  drawbacks;  the  picture 
has  to  be  shown  in  pieces.  The  difficulties  are  much  the 
same  as  would  be  experienced  if  dissected  maps  and 
animals,  used  for  children's  amusement,  were  to  be  put 
together  in  the  mind.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  con- 
ceive the  whole  map  of  the  United  States  from  blocks 
each  containing  a  small  part  of  it,  taken  one  at  a  time 
from  a  box.  Yet  this  closely  resembles  the  method  that 
language  forces  us  to  adopt  in  presenting  a  picture.  Each 
phrase  is  like  one  of  the  blocks,  and  each  introduces  a 
new  element  into  the  picture;  and  then,  from  these 
phrases,  the  reader  must  construct  the  whole  picture. 
This  means  not  alone  that  he  shall  remember  them  all, 
but  that  he  must  often  rearrange  them.  For  example,  a 
description  by  Ruskin  begins,  *'  Nine  years  old."  At 
once  each  reader  sees  the  image  of  a  little  boy  or  girl, 
whichever  it  is  that  brightens  his  own  home.  One  reader 
thinks  of  a  boy,  rather  tall  for  his  age,  with  dark  hair 
and  brown  eyes.  But  the  very  next  phrase  makes  him 
rearrange  his  whole  picture;  for  it  reads,  "  neither  tall 
nor  short  for  her  age."   Now  he  knows  that  it  is  a  girl. 


106  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

and  that  she  is  of  medium  height.  Later  on  he  learns  that 
her  eyes  are  "  deep  blue  ";  her  lips  "  perfectly  lovely 
in  profile  ";  and  so,  one  after  another,  new  details  are 
added  to  this  picture.  Many  times  in  the  course  of  a 
description,  the  reader  makes  up  a  new  picture;  he  is 
continually  reconstructing.  Any  one  that  will  observe 
his  own  mind  while  reading  a  new  description  can  prove 
to  himself  that  the  picture  is  arranged  and  rearranged 
many  times.  And  this  is  due  to  the  method  by  which  it 
is  presented.  Language  can  present  only  a  phrase  at 
a  time,  —  a  fragment,  not  a  whole,  —  and  so  language 
must  fail  in  the  instantaneous  presentation  of  a  com- 
plete picture. 

The  painter  or  the  sculptor,  who,  upon  canvas  or  in 
stone,  flashes  the  whole  picture  before  us  at  the  same 
instant  of  time,  has  great  advantages  over  the  worker 
in  words.  In  the  former  arts  there  is  no  need  for  recon- 
struction of  the  previous  images,  no  need  of  piecing  to- 
gether a  number  of  fragments.  Without  any  danger  of 
mistakes,  which  will  have  to  be  corrected  later,  the  spec- 
tator can  take  in  the  whole  picture  at  once  —  the  fine 
drawing,  the  harmonious  coloring,  the  artistic  grouping, 
the  complete  and  beautiful  picture. 

It  is  because  pictures  are  the  surest  and  quickest 
means  of  presenting  objects  to  the  mind,  that  books, 
especially  text-books,  and  magazines  are  more  and 
more  profusely  illustrated.  Few  magazines  can  claim 
popularity  to-day  that  do  not  use  illustrations  wherever 
possible;  few  text-books  in  science  or  history  sell  unless 
they  contain  pictures.  And  this  is  because  all  persons 
get  the  idea  accurately  and  quickly  from  a  picture. 

Whatever  may  be  the  disadvantages  of  language,  there 
are  some  advantages.  Who  could  paint  this  from  Haw- 
thorne? — 


DESCRIPTION  107 

Soon  the  smoke  ascended  among  the  trees,  impregnated  with 
a  savory  incense,  not  heavy,  dull,  and  surfeiting,  like  the  steam  of 
cookery  indoors,  but  sprightly  and  piquant.  The  smell  of  our 
feast  was  akin  to  the  woodland  odors  with  which  it  mingled. 

Or  this  from  Lowell?  — 

Under  the  yaller  pines  I  house. 
When  sunshine  makes  'em  all  sweet-scented. 
An'  hear  among  their  furry  boughs 
The  haskin   west-wind  purr  contented. 
While  'way  o'erhead,  ez  sweet  an'  low 
Ez  distant  bells  thet  ring  for  meetin. 
The  wedged  wil'  geese  their  bugles  blow. 
Further  an'  further  South  retreatin'. 

Or  who  could  cut  this  in  marble?  — 

O  mother  Ida,  many-fountain'd  Ida, 

Dear  mother  Ida,  hearken  ere  I  die. 

For  now  the  noonday  quiet  holds  the  hill: 

The  grasshopper  is  silent  in  the  grass: 

The  lizard,  with  his  shadow  on  the  stone. 

Rests  like  a  shadow,  and  the  winds  are  dead. 

The  purple  flower  droops:  the  golden  bee 

Is  lily-cradled:  I  alone  awake. 

My  eyes  are  full  of  tears,  my  heart  of  love. 

My  heart  is  breaking,  and  my  eyes  are  dim. 

And  I  am  all  aweary  of  my  life. 

Tennyson. 

The  painter  cannot  put  sounds  upon  a  canvas,  nor 
can  the  sculptor  carve  from  marble  an  odor  or  a  taste. 
We  use  other  senses  besides  sight  in  detecting  some 
qualities  of  objects.  As  Lowell  says  in  The  Vision  of 
Sir  Launfal,  "  We  may  shut  our  eyes,  but  we  cannot 
help  knowing  "  a  great  number  of  beautiful  things. 
Moreover,  language  suggests  hidden  ideas  that  the 
other  arts  of  expression  cannot  so  well  do.  The  follow- 
ing "  Song  "  by  Lowell  has  in  it  suggestions  that  a  pic- 
ture could  not  easily  present. 


108  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

Violet!  sweet  violet! 
Thine  eyes  are  full  of  tears; 

Are  they  wet 

Even  yet 
With  the  thought  of  other  years? 
Or  with  gladness  are  they  full. 
For  the  night  so  beautiful. 
And  longing  for  those  far-off  spheres? 

Thy  little  heart,  that  hath  with  love 
Grown  colored  like  the  sky  above. 
On  which  thou  lookest  ever,  — 

Can  it  know 

All  the  woe 
Of  hope  for  what  returneth  never. 
All  the  sorrow  and  the  longing 
To  these  hearts  of  ours  belonging? 

ENUMERATIVE  AND  SUGGESTIVE  DESCRIPTION 

Objects  may  be  described  in  two  ways,  according  to 
the  purpose  for  which  the  description  is  written.  If  the 
purpose  is  to  give  definite  information,  so  that  the  object 
described  may  be  recognized  by  the  description  of  it, 
a  writer  would  use  the  enumerative  method.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  purpose  is  to  make  the  reader  appreciate 
the  striking  features  of  an  object,  a  writer  would  adopt 
the  suggestive  method.  In  the  former  method,  many 
details  are  told;  in  the  latter,  the  description  is  as  for- 
tunate in  what  it  omits  as  in  what  it  includes.  Had  an 
architect  drawn  up  the  specifications  for  a  house  de- 
scribed in  Barnahy  Rudge  he  would  have  included 
every  detail;  but  after  reading  all  those  pages  of  care- 
ful enumeration,  a  person  would  know  less  of  how  the 
house  really  looked  than  after  these  few  lines  by 
Dickens :  — 

It  was  a  modest  building,  not  very  straight,  not  large, 
not  tall;  not  bold-faced,  with  great  staring  windows,  but  a  shy. 


ENUMERATIVE  DESCRIPTION  109 

blinking  house,  with  a  conical  roof  going  up  into  a  peak  over 
its  garret  window  of  four  small  panes  of  glass,  like  a  cocked 
hat  on  the  head  of  an  elderly  gentleman  with  one  eye. 

Enumerative  description.  Enumerative  description 
makes  one  element  of  as  much  importance  as  another; 
no  special  feature  is  made  primary  by  the  omission  or  the 
subdual  of  other  qualities.  It  has  value  in  giving  exact 
details  of  objects,  as  if  for  construction,  or  for  recog- 
nizing them  as  belonging  to  some  definite  class.  It  is 
used  to  give  information  or  instruction.  Much  that 
is  to  be  found  in  guide-books  and  text-books  is  enumera- 
tive description. 

The  following  is  a  description  of  the  front  of  Chartres 
cathedral,  by  Augustus  Hare;  and  it  is  simply  an  un- 
interesting enumeration  of  details :  — 

The  cathedral,  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  in  existence,  is 
a  Latin  cross.  Its  west  fagade  has  a  triple  portal,  above  which 
are  three  windows,  surmounted  by  a  splendid  rose  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  an  open  balustrade,  a  gallery  with  sixteen 
statues  of  kings,  and  a  gable  with  a  statue  of  the  Virgin 
between  angels,  and,  above  all,  Christ  in  benediction.  The 
lower  sculptures  are  twelfth  century,  the  upper  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  century.  The  greater  part  of  the  seven  hundred 
and  nineteen  statues  and  statuettes  of  the  portals  refer  to  the 
life  of  Christ.  Those  in  the  tympanum  and  vaulting  of  the 
right  portal  are  in  honour  of  the  Virgin.  The  vaulting  of 
the  left  portal  has  the  signs  of  the  zodiac  and  an  allegorical 
representation  of  the  twelve  months.  The  sculptured  name 
of  "Rogerus"  is  probably  that  of  the  architect. 

EXERCISE 
1.  Write  an  enumerative  description  of  one  of  the 
following  objects.    It  will  make  the  description  better 
if  the  details  are  arranged  in  some  definite  order. 

1.  A  bird-house,  so  that  a  boy  could  build  one. 

2.  A  shirt-waist  or  a  plate  of  "fudge,"  so  that  a  girl  could 
make  one  like  it. 


110  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

3.  A  lost  dog  or  a  stray  calf,  so  that  the  finder  could  return 
it  to  the  owner. 

4.  An  escaped  criminal,  so  that  the  police  could  arrest  him. 

2.  Draw  a  plan  of  your  room;  and  then  write  a  de- 
scription so  that  it  will  be  plain  where  each  article  of 
furniture  sits. 

Suggestive  description.  Suggestive  description  — 
the  aim  of  which  is  not  information,  but  the  reproduc- 
tion of  a  picture  —  is  the  kind  most  employed  in  litera- 
ture. To  present  the  best  picture,  not  all  the  details 
should  be  given.  The  mind  cannot  carry  a  great  num- 
ber; and,  what  is  worse,  it  cannot  arrange  them.  Nor 
is  there  any  need  for  a  detailed  enumeration.  A  room 
has  walls,  floor,  and  ceiling;  a  man  generally  has  ears, 
arms,  and  feet.  These  things  may  be  taken  for  granted. 
It  is  not  the  qualities  that  are  common  to  a  class  that 
describe  an  object;  it  is  the  quality  that  is  different,  that 
is  individual,  that  takes  the  object  out  of  a  general  class. 

These  short  descriptions  are  all  of  the  suggestive 
type.  In  each  of  them  the  effect  has  been  produced  by 
the  use  of  a  few  well-selected  details,  and  by  the  exclu- 
sion of  many  things  that  might  have  been  included. 
The  details  omitted  are  as  effective  as  those  included. 

1.  The  parson  was  a  little,  meagre,  black-looking  man,  with 
a  grizzled  wig  that  was  too  wide  and  stood  off  from  each 
ear;  so  that  his  head  seemed  to  have  shrunk  away  within 
it,  like  a  dried  filbert  in  its  shell.  He  wore  a  rusty  coat, 
with  great  skirts  and  pockets  that  would  have  held  the 
church  Bible  and  prayer-book;  and  his  small  legs  seemed 
still  smaller  from  being  planted  in  large  shoes  decorated 
with  enormous  buckles.  —  Irving. 

2.  It  was  only  ten  o'clock.  The  dull  roar  of  the  traffic  which 
converged  all  day  upon  London  Bridge  had  died  away  now 
to  a  mere  confused  murmur.  It  was  raining  heavily,  and 
the  gas  shone  dimly  through  the  streaked  and  dripping 


ENUMERATIVE  DESCRIPTION  111 

glass,  throwing  little  circles  upon  the  glistening  cobble- 
stones. The  air  was  full  of  sounds  of  the  rain,  the  thin 
swish  of  its  fall,  the  heavier  drip  from  the  eaves,  and  the 
swirl  and  gurgle  down  the  two  steep  gutters  and  through 
the  sewer  grating.  —  Conan  Doyle. 

The  following  is  a  description  by  Newman,  in  which 
the  two  methods  have  been  combined  in  the  most  ar- 
tistic manner.  In  this  picture  of  **  bright  and  beautiful 
Athens,"  down  as  far  as  the  sentence  beginning,  "  But 
what  he  would  not  think  of,"  there  is  simply  an  enumera- 
tion of  features  that  a  commercial  agent  might  see;  the 
rest  is  what  the  artistic  soul  of  a  lover  of  beauty  found 
there.  One  is  enumeration;  the  other  a  gloriously  sug- 
gestive picture. 

A  confined  triangle,  perhaps  fifty  miles  its  greatest  length, 
and  thirty  its  greatest  breadth;  two  elevated  rocky  barriers, 
meeting  at  an  angle;  three  prominent  mountains,  commanding 
the  plain,  —  Parnes,  Pentelicus,  and  Hymettus;  an  unsatis- 
factory soil;  some  streams,  not  always  full;  —  such  is  about 
the  report  which  the  agent  of  a  London  company  would  have 
made  of  Attica.  He  would  report  that  the  climate  was  mild; 
the  hills  were  limestone;  there  was  plenty  of  good  marble; 
more  pasture  land  than  at  first  survey  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, sufficient  certainly  for  sheep  and  goats;  fisheries  pro- 
ductive; silver  mines  once,  but  long  since  worked  out;  figs 
fair;  oil  first-rate;  olives  in  profusion.  But  what  he  would  not 
think  of  noting  down,  was,  that  that  olive-tree  was  so  choice 
in  nature  and  so  noble  in  shape  that  it  excited  a  religious 
veneration;  and  that  it  took  so  kindly  to  the  light  soil,  as  to 
expand  into  woods  upon  the  open  plain,  and  to  climb  up  and 
fringe  the  hills.  He  would  not  think  of  writing  word  to  his  em- 
ployers, how  that  clear  air,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  brought 
out,  yet  blended  and  subdued,  the  colors  on  the  marble,  till 
they  had  a  softness  and  harmony,  for  all  their  richness,  which 
in  a  picture  looks  exaggerated,  yet  is  after  all  within  the  truth. 
He  would  not  tell,  how  that  same  delicate  and  brilliant  at- 
mosphere freshened  up  the  pale  olive,  till  the  olive  forgot  its 
monotony,  and  its  cheek  glowed  like  the  arbutus  or  beech  of 


112  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

the  Umbrian  hills.  He  would  say  nothing  of  the  thyme  and 
the  thousand  fragrant  herbs  which  carpeted  Hymettus;  he 
would  hear  nothing  of  the  hum  of  its  bees;  nor  take  account 
of  the  rare  flavor  of  its  honey,  since  Gozo  and  Minorca  were 
sufficient  for  the  English  demand.  He  would  look  over  the 
^gean  from  the  height  he  had  ascended;  he  would  follow  with 
his  eyes  the  chain  of  islands,  which,  starting  from  the  Sunian 
headland,  seemed  to  offer  the  fabled  divinities  of  Attica,  when 
they  would  visit  their  Ionian  cousins,  a  sort  of  viaduct  thereto 
across  the  sea:  but  that  fancy  would  not  occur  to  him,  nor  any 
admiration  of  the  dark  violet  billows  with  their  white  edges 
down  below;  nor  of  those  graceful,  fan-like  jets  of  silver  upon 
the  rocks,  which  slowly  rise  aloft  like  water  spirits  from  the 
deep,  then  shiver,  and  break,  and  spread,  and  shroud  them- 
selves, and  disappear  in  a  soft  mist  of  foam;  nor  of  the  gentle, 
incessant  heaving  and  panting  of  the  whole  liquid  plain;  nor 
of  the  long  waves,  keeping  steady  time,  like  a  line  of  soldiery 
as  they  resound  upon  the  hollow  shore,  —  he  would  not  deign 
to  notice  that  restless  living  element  at  all  except  to  bless  his 
stars  that  he  was  not  upon  it.  Nor  the  distinct  details,  nor  the 
refined  coloring,  nor  the  graceful  outline  and  roseate  golden 
hue  of  the  jutting  crags,  nor  the  bold  shadows  cast  from  Otus 
or  Laurium  by  the  declining  sun;  —  our  agent  of  a  mercantile 
firm  would  not  value  these  matters  even  at  a  low  figure. 
Rather,  we  must  turn  for  the  sympathy  we  seek  to  yon  pilgrim 
student,  come  from  a  semi-barbarous  land  to  that  small 
corner  of  the  earth,  as  to  a  shrine,  where  he  might  take  his 
fill  of  gazing  on  those  emblems  and  coruscations  of  invisible 
unoriginate  perfection.  It  was  the  stranger  from  a  remote 
province,  from  Britain  or  from  Mauritania,  who  in  a  scene  so 
different  from  that  of  his  chilly,  woody  swamps,  or  of  his  fiery, 
choking  sands,  learned  at  once  what  a  real  University  must 
be,  by  coming  to  understand  the  sort  of  country  which  was  its 
suitable  home. 

It  must  now  be  evident  to  all  that  good  description 
depends  largely  on  accurate  observation.  A  selection  fre- 
quently quoted,  but  none  the  less  valuable  because  often 
seen,  is  in  point  here.  It  is  the  last  word  on  the  value  of 
observation. 


ENUMERATIVE  DESCRIPTION  113 

Talent  is  long  patience.  It  is  a  question  of  regarding  what- 
ever one  desires  to  express  long  enough  and  with  attention 
close  enough  to  discover  a  side  which  no  one  has  seen  and 
which  has  been  expressed  by  nobody.  In  everything  there  is 
something  of  the  unexplored,  because  we  are  accustomed  to 
use  our  eyes  only  with  the  thought  of  what  has  already  been 
said  concerning  the  thing  we  see.  The  smallest  thing  has  in 
it  a  grain  of  the  unknown.  Discover  it.  In  order  to  describe 
a  fire  that  flames  or  a  tree  in  the  plain,  we  must  remain  face 
to  face  with  that  fire  or  that  tree  until  for  us  they  no  longer 
resemble  any  other  tree  or  any  other  fire.  This  is  the  way 
to  become  original. 

Having,  moreover,  impressed  upon  me  the  fact  that  there 
are  not  in  the  whole  world  two  grains  of  sand,  two  insects, 
two  hands,  or  two  noses  absolutely  alike,  he  forced  me  to 
describe  a  being  or  an  object  in  such  a  manner  as  to  individu- 
alize it  clearly,  to  distinguish  it  from  all  other  objects  of  the 
same  kind.  "When  you  pass,"  he  said  to  me,  "a  grocer  seated 
in  his  doorway,  a  concierge  smoking  his  pipe,  a  row  of  cabs, 
show  me  this  grocer  and  this  concierge,  their  attitude,  all 
their  physical  appearance;  suggest  by  the  skill  of  your  image 
all  their  moral  nature,  so  that  I  shall  not  confound  them  with 
any  other  grocer  or  any  other  concierge;  make  me  see,  by  a 
single  word,  wherein  a  cab-horse  diflFers  from  the  fifty  others 
that  follow  or  precede  him."  .  .  .  Whatever  may  be  the 
thing  which  one  wishes  to  say,  there  is  but  one  word  for  ex- 
pressing it;  only  one  verb  to  animate  it,  but  one  adjective 
to  qualify  it.  It  is  essential  to  search  for  this  verb,  for  this 
adjective,  until  they  are  discovered,  and  never  to  be  satis- 
fied with  anything  else.  —  Maupassant. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Observe  very  carefully  some  common  object  that 
you  wish  to  describe.  Be  sure  that  you  see  something 
in  this  that  you  had  not  noticed  before.  Tell  about  it. 
Do  not  try  to  write  a  long  description;  just  bring  out 
clearly  this  one  thing.  Your  description  might  begin 
in  one  of  these  ways:  — 

1.  The  one  thing  that  attracted  my  attention  to  this  dog 


114  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

(cat,  horse,  bird,  rabbit)  was   .  .  .  Instead  of  the  usual 
.  .  .   ,  I  saw  there  .  .   . 

2.  How  different  our  baby  is  from  most  babies! 

3.  It  is  a  fine  old  oak  tree;  and  I  never  see  it  without  think- 
ing of  a  .  .  .  There  is  something  about  this  tree  that 
seems  different.  .  .  . 

2.  Take  your  note-book  and  pencil  and  sit  down  for 
a  half-hour  or  longer  to  study  some  person.  It  may  be 
the  baby  when  he  is  having  his  bath,  or  when  he  is  eat- 
ing his  early  supper,  or  when  he  is  taking  his  first  steps 
in  learning  to  walk.  Do  not  try  to  get  him  in  all  three 
situations  —  one  is  enough  for  a  picture.  Take  down 
notes  of  everything  he  does,  and  especially  how  he  looks 
as  he  does  it.  Watch  the  expressions  on  his  face,  the 
way  he  uses  his  hands  and  feet. 

Other  good  subjects  to  study  are:  — 

1.  Father  reading  the  evening  paper. 

2.  Father  carving  the  meat  at  dinner. 

3.  Mother  mending. 

4.  Mother  pouring  tea. 

5.  Big  sistei*  before  the  mirror. 

6.  Sister  reading  an  interesting  book.  \ 

7.  Brother  putting  on  a  new  tie. 

8.  Brother  studying  a  diflScult  lesson. 

Make  this  preparation  several  days  before  you  are 
to  give  your  oral  description  in  class.  Then  select  from 
your  notes  the  details  that  will  help  you  to  show  to 
others  the  person  as  you  saw  him.  After  arranging  your 
details,  you  may  write  a  word  or  two  suggesting  each 
detail  on  a  small  card,  to  refer  to  as  you  recite,  if  you  like. 
Now  form  carefully  in  your  mind  the  sentences  that 
you  are  going  to  use,  so  as  not  to  be  at  a  loss  what  to  say 
when  you  are  called  upon.  It  is  a  good  plan  to  write 
and  commit  to  memory  the  sentences  for  the  beginning 


SELECTION  OF  MATERIAL  115 

and  the  ending,  so  that  you  will  keep  the  central  thought 
prominent. 

SELECTION  OF  MATERIAL 

The  point  of  view.  With  the  most  careful  observation, 
a  writer  gets  into  his  own  mind  the  picture  he  wishes  to 
present  to  another;  and  with  this  necessary  step  taken, 
he  is  ready  to  begin  the  work  of  communicating  the 
picture  that  he  sees.  To  make  others  see  what  is  in  his 
mind  is  not  always  easy.  The  first  thing  to  be  considered 
is  the  point  of  view. 

The  point  of  view  is  the  position  an  author  assumes  in 
describing  an  object. 

The  physical  point  of  view.  The  point  of  view  may 
mean  the  physical  position  a  person  takes  —  the  place 
where  he  stands  while  looking  at  an  object.  The  physi- 
cal point  of  view  is  perfectly  clear  in  the  following:  — 

1.  The  window  of  my  chamber  looked  out  upon  what  in 
summer  would  have  been  a  beautiful  landscape.  There 
was  a  sloping  lawn,  a  fine  stream  winding  at  the  foot  of 
it,  and  a  tract  of  park  beyond,  with  noble  clumps  of  trees, 
and  herds  of  deer.  At  a  distance  was  a  neat  hamlet,  with 
the  smoke  from  the  cottage-chimneys  hanging  over  it; 
and  a  church  with  its  dark  spire  in  strong  relief  against 
the  clear,  cold  sky.  —  Irving. 

2.  I  had  prepared  myself  for  a  sensation  as  we  rose  from  the 
sandy  heath  at  Dusseldorf.  I  had  imagined  that  the  bal- 
loon ascent  would  feel  like  a  rush  skywards  in  a  lift  of 
tremendous  velocity.  Instead,  we  reached  a  height  of 
500  feet  so  steadily  and  gently  that  if  I  had  not  been  lean- 
ing out  of  the  window  of  the  car,  I  could  not  have  be- 
lieved we  had  left  the  earth. 

How  comfortable  it  was!  We  lay  back  in  our  wicker 
chairs.  A  plate  of  caviare  sandwiches  stood  on  the  window 
ledge  beside  each  of  us.  The  surface  of  the  water  in  our 
glasses  was  unrippled.    Fascinated  by  the  wonder  of  our 


116  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

position,  we  gazed  down  upon  the  quaint  little  toy  world 
a  thousand  feet  below.  It  was  as  if  we  saw  it  from  another 
planet.  How  neat  and  tidy  it  looked !  The  roads  were  so 
straight;  the  gardens  so  charming  with  their  geometrical 
displays  of  color.  And  the  people!  What  curious  mani- 
kins! Little  black  things  with  a  white  dot  at  one  end  for 
their  upturned  faces.  See  how  they  run,  with  curious, 
awkward,  jerky  movements  of  their  legs  and  arms,  stum- 
bling often  over  obstacles  that  are  too  infinitesimal  for 
us  Olympians  even  to  see.  —  Correspondent  to  London 
TimeSy  July,  1910. 

The  mental  point  of  view.  The  point  of  view  may  be 
the  author's  mental  attitude,  or  position,  regarding  the 
object  he  is  describing.  And  this  feeling  toward  an  object 
is  the  result  of  some  dominating  quality  in  the  thing 
described.  The  following  descriptions  indicate  clearly 
the  mental  point  of  view  toward  the  object  described. 
In  the  first,  the  observer  retains  throughout  the  descrip- 
tion his  feeling  of  pleasure  in  the  sight  of  the  "  lovely 
stream  ";  the  second  is  pervaded  by  a  metallic  hardness, 
which  continues  to  the  last  sentence;  the  last  breathes  a 
spirit  of  sadness. 

A  more  lovely  stream  than  this,  for  a  mile  above  its  junction 
with  the  Concord,  has  never  been  found  on  earth,  —  nowhere, 
indeed,  except  to  lave  the  interior  regions  of  a  poet's  imagina- 
tion. It  is  sheltered  from  the  breeze  by  woods  and  a  hillside; 
so  that  elsewhere  there  might  be  a  hurricane,  and  here  scarcely 
a  ripple  across  the  shaded  water.  The  current  lingers  along  so 
gently  that  the  mere  force  of  the  boatman's  will  seems  suf- 
ficient to  propel  his  craft  against  it.  It  comes  flowing  softly 
through  the  midmost  privacy  and  deepest  heart  of  a  wood 
which  whispers  it  to  be  quiet;  while  the  stream  whispers  back 
again  from  its  sedgy  borders,  as  if  river  and  wood  were  hush- 
ing one  another  to  sleep.  The  river  sleeps  along  its  course  and 
dreams  of  the  sky  and  of  the  clustering  foliage,  amid  which 
fall  showers  of  broken  sunlight,  imparting  specks  of  vivid 
cheerfulness,  in  contrast  with  the  quiet  depth  of  the  prevailing 
tint.  —  Hawthorne. 


SELECTION  OF  MATERIAL  117 

It  was  Miss  Murdstone  who  was  arrived,  and  a  gloomy-look- 
ing lady  she  was;  dark,  like  her  brother,  whom  she  greatly 
resembled  in  face  and  voice;  and  with  very  heavy  eyebrows, 
nearly  meeting  over  her  large  nose,  as  if,  being  disabled  by  the 
wrongs  of  her  sex  from  wearing  whiskers,  she  had  carried  them 
to  that  account.  She  brought  with  her  two  uncompromising 
hard  black  boxes,  with  her  initials  in  the  lids  in  hard  brass 
nails.  When  she  paid  the  coachman  she  took  her  money  out 
of  a  hard  steel  purse,  and  she  kept  the  purse  in  a  very  jail  of  a 
bag,  which  hung  upon  her  arm  by  a  heavy  chain,  and  shut  up 
like  a  bite.  I  had  never,  at  that  time,  seen  such  a  metallic  lady 
altogether  as  Miss  Murdstone  was.  —  Dickens. 

The  melancholy  days  are  come,  the  saddest  of  the  year. 
Of  wailing  winds,  and  naked  woods,  and  meadows  brown  and  sere. 
Heaped  in  the  hollows  of  the  grove,  the  autumn  leaves  lie  dead; 
They  rustle  to  the  eddying  gust,  and  to  the  rabbit's  tread. 
The  robin  and  the  wren  are  flown,  and  from  the  shrubs  the  jay. 
And  from  the  wood-top  calls  the  crow,  through  all  the  gloomy  day. 

Brtant. 

Selection,  from  the  physical  point.  The  point  of  view 
has  much  the  same  importance  in  description  as  the  main 
incident  has  in  narration.  In  large  degree  it  tells  what 
to  include  and  what  to  exclude.  When  a  writer  has  taken 
his  point  of  view,  he  must  stay  there,  and  tell  not  a 
thing  more  than  he  can  see  from  that  point.  It  would 
hardly  be  possible  for  a  man,  telling  only  so  much  as  he 
saw  while  gazing  from  Eiffel  Tower  into  the  streets  be- 
low, to  say  both  that  the  people  looked  like  Lilliputians 
and  that  their  hands  were  dirty.  To  one  lying  on  the 
bank  of  a  stream,  it  does  not  look  like  "  a  silver  thread 
running  through  the  landscape.'*  Things  do  not  look 
the  same  when  they  are  near  as  when  at  a  distance.  This 
fact  has  been  recognized  more  fully  by  the  modern  school 
of  painting  than  ever  before  in  art.  Verboeckhoven 
painted  sheep  in  a  marvelous  way:  the  drawing  is  per- 
fect, giving  the  animal  to  the  life.  Still,  no  matter  how 


118  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

far  away  the  artist  was  standing,  there  are  the  same 
marvelously  painted  tufts  of  wool,  showing  almost  the 
individual  fibers.  No  artist  at  twenty  rods  could  see 
them.  The  new  school  gives  only  what  actually  can  be 
seen.  Its  first  law  is  that  each  "  shall  draw  the  thing 
as  he  sees  it."  Make  no  additions  to  what  you  can  ac- 
tually see  because,  as  a  result  of  experience,  you  know 
that  there  are  some  things  not  yet  mentioned  in  your 
description;  the  hands  may  be  dirty,  but  the  man  on 
the  tower  cannot  see  the  dirt.  Neither  make  an  addi- 
tion simply  because  it  sounds  well:  the  "  silver  thread 
running  through  the  landscape  "  is  beautiful;  but,  un- 
fortunately, it  is  not  always  true. 

Not  only  does  distance  cut  out  details  from  a  picture; 
the  fact  that  man  sees  in  a  straight  line  and  not  around 
a  corner  eliminates  some  features.  In  describing  a  house, 
remember  that,  as  you  stand  across  the  street  from  it, 
you  cannot  see  the  back  porch,  neither  can  you  see  the 
shrubbery  in  the  back  yard.  A  writer  would  not  be  justi- 
fied in  speaking  of  a  man's  necktie,  if  the  man  he  was 
describing  were  walking  in  front  of  him.  In  enumerative 
description  the  inside  of  a  closed  box  may  be  told  of; 
a  man  may  be  turned  around,  as  it  were;  but,  to  present 
a  picture,  only  one  side  should  be  described,  just  as  it 
would  be  shown  in  a  photograph.  Any  addition  to  what 
can  actually  be  known  from  the  point  of  view  assumed 
by  the  author  is  a  fault  and  a  source  of  confusion.  Choose 
your  point  of  view;  stay  there;  and  tell  only  what  is 
seen  from  that  point. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  point  of  view  should  not  be 
changed.  This  requires  one  modification.  It  may  be 
changed  if  the  reader  is  kept  informed  of  the  changes. 
Suppose  that  a  person  wished  to  describe  an  interior. 
He  would,  of  course,  be  unable  to  see  the  whole  of  it 


SELECTION  OF  MATERIAL  119 

from  any  one  point  of  view.  And  so,  as  he  passed  from 
room  to  room  in  his  description,  he  should  inform  his 
reader  of  his  change  of  position.  Then  the  description, 
though  a  unit,  is  a  combination  of  several  descriptions; 
just  as  the  house  is  one,  though  made  of  different  rooms. 
This  kind  of  description  is  very  common  in  books  of 
travel,  in  which  the  author  tells  what  he  sees  in  passing. 
The  thing  to  be  remembered  in  writing  it  is  to  inform 
the  reader  where  the  author  is  when  he  writes  the  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  description  —  to  give  the  several 
points  of  view. 

The  point  of  view,  whether  fixed  or  moving,  should 
be  indicated.  Either  it  should  be  clearly  stated,  or  it 
should  be  suggested  by  some  phrase  in  the  description. 
In  the  many  examples  quoted  in  this  chapter,  it  would 
be  well  to  see  what  it  is  that  gives  the  point  of  view. 
The  following  sentences  are  from  The  Old  Manse^  a  long 
description  of  a  quiet  house  that  has  since  become  one 
of  the  shrines  of  Concord.  Hawthorne  announces  his 
first  point  of  view  in  the  opening  sentence.  Then  one 
point  of  view  follows  another,  as  the  description  ad- 
vances. There  can  be  no  mistake  here;  the  reader  knows 
every  move  the  author  makes. 

Between  two  tall  gateposts  of  rough-hewn  stone  (the  gate 
itself  having  fallen  from  its  hinges  at  some  unknown  epoch) 
we  beheld  the  gray  front  of  the  old  parsonage  terminating 
the  vista  of  an  avenue  of  black-ash  trees. 

From  the  gate,  the  reader  is  led  along  this  avenue  to 
"  the  rear  of  the  house,'*  where  there  was  "  the  most 
delightful  little  nook  of  a  study  that  ever  offered  its 
snug  seclusion  to  a  scholar."  In  two  paragraphs,  this 
study  is  described.  Through  its  window,  Hawthorne  tells 
us,  a  clergyman  who  long  ago  dwelt  in  the  manse  saw 
the  opening  of  the  deadly  struggle  between  two  nations. 


120  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

The  next  paragraph  begins  with  — 

Perhaps  the  reader  .  .  .  will  choose  to  take  a  nearer  view 
of  the  memorable  spot.     We  stand  now  on  the  river's  brink. 

Then  follow  four  pages  about  the  battle  and  the  battle- 
field, so  fascinating  to  Hawthorne  that,  at  the  end  of 
them,  he  exclaims :  — 

The  Old  Manse!    We  had  almost  forgotten  it,  but  will  re- 
turn thither  through  the  orchard. 

Next  come  three  pages  about  the  orchard  and  the  gar- 
den. Then,  fearing  that  the  reader  may  despair  of 
**  finding  his  way  back  into  the  Old  Manse,'*  he  remarks 
on  the  way  that  — 

in  agreeable  weather  it  is  the  truest  hospitality  to  keep  him 
out-of-doors.  I  never  grew  quite  acquainted  with  my  habita- 
tion till  a  long  spell  of  sulky  rain  had  confined  me  beneath 
its  roof. 

And  here  follows  the  longest  part  of  this  beautiful 
description.  Throughout  the  whole,  every  point  of  view 
has  been  carefully  noted ;  as  it  should  be  in  any  descrip- 
tion that  has  a  moving  point  of  view. 

EXERCISE 

Choose  one  of  the  following  subjects,  and  write  upon 
it  as  suggested :  — 

1.  You  have  just  moved  into  a  new  house  (real  or  imaginary), 
and  your  best  friend  has  come  to  visit  you  for  the  first 
time.  Show  him  about  through  the  different  rooms  to 
which  you  are  pleased  to  take  him  —  the  living-room, 
the  dining-room,  a  peep  into  the  kitchen,  upstairs  to  the 
bedrooms  and  to  your  own  cozy  room  last.  Describe 
your  own  room  more  fully  than  the  others.  Keep  your 
reader  informed  each  time  you  make  a  change  from  room 
to  room.  Give  a  brief  picture  of  each  room  as  you  visit 
it,  and  be  sure  to  have  some  one  idea  dominate  each. 


SELECTION  OF  MATERIAL  121 

You  might  show,  for  example,  the  hospitable  look  the 
living-room  has,  the  pleasing  harmony  of  the  decorations 
of  the  dining-room,  the  conveniences  and  neatness  of  the 
kitchen,  the  daintiness  and  comfort  of  the  bedrooms,  and 
your  feeling  toward  your  own  delightful  room.  Don't  be 
afraid  to  admire  your  home,  nor  to  show  how  much  you 
appreciate  its  beauty  and  comfort. 

2.  Describe  your  walk  to  school.  You  pass  many  pleasant, 
interesting  places  on  the  way.  Stop  long  enough  at  each 
to  note  some  of  its  attractive  features.  Each  time,  as  you 
come  to  a  place  you  wish  to  describe,  state  where  you  are. 
Do  not  attempt  too  many  descriptions.  Three  or  four 
short  pictures  that  are  different  are  better  than  a  number 
alike. 

3.  Perhaps  you  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  have  taken  a 
stage-coach  trip  through  the  wonderful  Yellowstone  Park, 
or  through  the  beautiful  Yosemite  Valley.  Describe  what 
you  saw  at  some  of  the  different  stopping  places.  State 
where  you  were  each  time. 

4.  You  may  have  taken  a  trolley-ride  or  an  automobile 
excursion  through  lovely  farm-country  or  quaint,  old- 
fashioned  villages.   Describe  the  unusual  things  you  saw. 

6.  Or  you  may  have  made  a  trip  on  a  railroad  train,  when  your 
eye  noted  many  charming  bits  of  scenery,  and  strange 
sights  on  station  platforms. 

6.  Possibly  you  ran  away  from  home.  Things  looked  dif- 
ferent from  the  way  they  had  appeared.  Tell  how  they 
appeared  as  you  left  home. 

Selection,  from  the  mental  point.  Closely  connected 
with  the  physical  point  of  view  is  the  mood  of  the 
writer,  —  the  attitude  he  takes  toward  the  thing  he  is 
describing,  —  which  we  have  already  called  the  mental 
point  of  view.  Not  everything  should  be  told  that  the 
author  could  know  from  his  physical  position,  but  only 
those  things  that  serve  his  purpose.  An  artist  puts  into 
his  picture  those  objects  that  help  him  to  express  his 
mood;  the  composer  uses  only  the  musical  phrases  that 


122  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

will  express  his  feeling.  The  introduction  of  a  dance 
into  the  midst  of  a  solemn  funeral  march  would  be  ruin- 
ous; as  would  be  the  introduction  of  a  starving  beggar 
into  Guido  Reni's  beautiful  picture  of  Aurora.  With 
exactly  the  same  purpose  in  mind,  Hawthorne,  in  the 
description  from  the  The  Old  Manse  (page  116),  has  re- 
tained only  those  features  that  suggest  quiet  and  peace, 
Newman's  mercantile  gentleman  (page  111)  thinks 
only  of  the  things  that  make  money  —  the  soil,  the 
streams,  the  climate,  the  limestone,  the  fisheries,  and 
the  silver  mines.  How  different  is  his  picture  from  that 
of  *'  yon  pilgrim  student  "  who  sees  in  Athens  a  shrine! 
In  the  following  verses  from  King  Lear,  in  which 
Edgar  tells  his  blinded  father  how  high  the  cliff  is,  Shake- 
speare included  only  those  details  that  would  impress 
upon  the  blind  man  the  fearful  and  dizzy  height:  — 

How  fearful 
And  dizzy  't  is  to  cast  one's  eyes  so  low! 
The  crows  and  choughs  that  wing  the  midway  air 
Show  scarce  so  gross  as  beetles:  half  way  down 
Hangs  one  that  gathers  samphire,  —  dreadful  trade! 
Methinks  he  seems  no  bigger  than  his  head: 
The  fishermen  that  walk  upon  the  beach 
Appear  like  mice;  and  yond  tall  anchoring  bark 
Diminish 'd  to  her  cock;  her  cock,  a  buoy 
Almost  too  small  for  sight:  the  murmuring  surge 
That  on  th'  unnumbered  idle  pebbles  chafes. 
Cannot  be  heard  so  high.  —  I'll  look  no  more. 
Lest  my  brain  turn,  and  the  deficient  sight 
Topple  down  headlong. 

The  following  is  from  Mary  Johnston's  The  Long  Roll: 

The  First  Brigade  was  dispirited  and  critical,  and  as  it  had 
not  yet  learned  to  control  its  mood,  it  marched  as  a  dispirited 
and  critical  person  would  be  apt  to  march  in  the  brazen  middle 
of  a  July  day.  Every  spring  and  rivulet,  every  blackberry  bush 
and  apple  tree  upon  the  road  gathered  recruits.  The  halts  for 


SELECTION  OF   MATERIAL  123 

no  purpose  were  interminable,  the  perpetual  Close  wp,  close  up, 
men !  of  the  exasperated  officers  as  unavailing  as  the  droning  in 
the  heat  of  the  burnished  June-bugs.  .  .  . 

The  July  dust  rose  from  the  pike  in  clouds,  hot,  choking, 
thick  as  the  rain  of  ash  from  a  volcano.  It  lay  heavy  upon 
coat,  cap,  haversack,  and  knapsack,  upon  the  muskets  and 
upon  the  colours,  drooping  in  the  heat,  drooping  at  the  idea  of 
turning  back  upon  Patterson  and  going  off,  Heaven  and  Old 
Joe  knew  where!  Tramp,  tramp  over  the  hot  pike,  sullenly 
southward,  hot  without  and  hot  within!  The  knapsack  was 
heavy,  the  haversack  was  heavy,  the  musket  was  heavy. 
Sweat  ran  down  from  under  cap  or  felt  hat,  and  made  grimy 
trenches  down  cheek  and  chin.  The  men  had  too  thick  under- 
wear. They  carried  overcoat  and  blanket  —  it  was  hot,  hot, 
and  every  pound  like  ten!  To  keep  —  to  throw  away  ?  To  keep 
—  to  throw  away  ?  The  beat  of  feet  kept  time  to  that  pressing 
question.  ... 

Through  the  enormous  dust  cloud  that  the  army  raised  the 
trees  of  the  valley  appeared  as  brown  smudges  against  an 
ochreish  sky.  The  farther  hills  and  the  mountains  were  not 
seen  at  all.  The  stone  fences  on  either  side  the  road,  the 
blackberry  bushes,  the  elder,  the  occasional  apple  or  cherry 
tree  were  all  but  dun  lines  and  blotches.  Oh,  hot,  hot!  A  man 
swung  his  arm  and  a  rolled  overcoat  landed  in  the  middle  of  a 
briar  patch.  A  second  followed  suit  —  a  third,  a  fourth.  A 
great,  rawboned  fellow  from  some  mountain  clearing  jerked  at 
the  lacing  of  his  shoes  and  in  a  moment  was  marching  bare- 
foot, the  offending  leather  swinging  from  his  arm.  To  right 
and  left  he  found  imitators.  A  corpulent  man,  a  merchant 
used  to  a  big  chair  set  in  the  shady  front  of  a  village  store, 
suffered  greatly,  pale  about  the  lips,  and  with  his  breath 
coming  in  wheezing  gasps.  His  overcoat  went  first,  then  his 
roll  of  blanket.  Finally  he  gazed  a  moment,  sorrowfully  enough, 
at  his  knapsack,  then  dropped  it,  too,  quietly,  in  a  fence  corner. 
Close  upy  men  —  close  up ! 

Selection,  for  the  reader.  There  is  one  more  step  in 
the  exclusion  of  details.  This  considers  what  is  due 
the  reader.  Stevenson  says  in  one  of  his  essays  that  a 
description  that  lasts  longer  than  two  minutes  is  never 
attempted  in  conversation.   The  listener  cannot  hold 


124  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

the  details  enumerated.  The  clearest  statement  of  this 
comes  from  Jules  Lemattre  in  a  criticism  upon  some  de- 
scriptions by  Emile  Zola,  which,  the  critic  remarks,  are 
praised  by  persons  who  have  never  read  them.  He  says: 

It  has  been  one  of  the  greatest  literary  blunders  of  the  time 
to  suppose  that  an  enumeration  of  parts  is  a  picture,  to  think 
that  forever  placing  details  side  by  side,  however  picturesque 
they  may  be,  is  able  in  the  end  to  make  a  picture,  to  give  us  any 
conception  of  the  vast  spectacles  in  the  physical  universe.  .  .  . 
It  is  necessary  that  all  the  details  coexist  in  our  memory  just 
as  the  parts  of  a  painting  coexist  under  our  eye.  This  becomes 
next  to  impossible  if  the  description  of  one  definite  object 
last  over  fifteen  minutes  of  reading.  The  longer  it  is,  the  more 
obscure  it  becomes.  The  individual  features  fade  away  in 
proportion  to  the  number  which  are  presented;  and  for  this 
reason  one  might  say  that  we  cannot  see  the  forest  for  the 
trees.  Every  description  which  is  over  fifty  lines  ceases  to  be 
clear  to  a  mind  of  ordinary  vigor.  After  that  there  is  only  a 
succession  of  fragmentary  pictures,  which  fatigues  and  over- 
whelms the  reader. 

Summary.  These,  then,  are  the  principles  that  guide 
in  the  choice  of  materials  for  description :  — 

First,  the  point  of  view,  whether  fixed  or  moving, 
must  be  indicated  to  the  reader;  it  should  be  retained 
throughout  the  description,  or  else  every  change  should  be 
clearly  announced.  By  a  careful  regard  for  it,  the  writer 
will  be  guided  to  the  exclusion  of  details  that  could  not 
be  observed,  and  to  the  inclusion  of  such  details  as  can 
be  seen  and  are  essential. 

Second,  the  writer  will  keep  out  matters  that  do  not 
contribute  to  his  purpose,  and  will  select  only  those  de- 
tails that  assist  in  producing  the  desired  impression. 

Third,  the  limitations  of  the  reader's  powers  advise 
a  writer  to  be  brief:  five  hundred  words  should  be  the 
outside;  one  hundred  are  enough  for  most  descriptions. 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  125 

These  principles  will  give  to  the  whole  that  unity  of 
material  and  of  structure  which  is  the  first  requisite  of 
an  effective  description. 

EXERCISE 

Choose  one  of  the  following  subjects  for  composi- 
tion:— 

1.  Describe  your  own  room  as  it  looks  to  you  when  you  re- 
turn to  it  after  a  bitter  disappointment.  Does  it  bring 
you  comfort?  or  does  it  add  yet  more  to  the  torture  you 
are  suffering?  Assume  either  one  or  the  other  attitude,  and 
then  select  the  objects  that  nfake  a  sad  or  a  glad  picture. 

2.  Or,  describe  your  own  dog,  which  you  love  much.  How 
will  you  make  the  reader  see  how  attractive  he  is? 

S.  Or,  give  the  class  a  vivid  picture  of  a  neighbor's  dog,  just 
after  he  has  killed  your  pet  rabbit  or  pet  bird. 

4.  Or,  complete  this:  What  a  miserable  little  wretch  he  was! 

5.  Or  this:  How  beautiful  she  looked  on  that  night  of  her 
first  party ! 

ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL 

The  beginning.  After  we  have  looked  at  any  object 
long  enough  to  be  able  to  write  about  it,  one  feature 
comes  to  assume  an  importance  that  sets  it  far  above 
all  others.  When  a  person  looks  long  at  a  coward,  he  may 
neglect  all  his  other  qualities,  because  almost  the  only 
thing  he  can  see  is  his  cringing  cowardice;  and  this 
characteristic  he  would  make  stand  out  in  a  description. 
Or,  his  attention  may  be  attracted  by  an  opposite  char- 
acter —  some  strong,  self-reliant  hero,  whose  very  pre- 
sence inspires  serenest  trust;  then  the  description  would 
neglect  other  qualities  to  make  the  brave  and  heroic 
prominent.  In  the  same  way,  a  traveler,  once,  standing 
for  the  first  time  in  St.  Peter's,  was  most  impressed  by 
its  immensity;  but  Hawthorne,  gazing  on  the  same  scene, 
saw  only  its  gorgeous  coloring.  Proportions,  immensity, 


126  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

and  sacredness  were  as  nothing  to  Hawthorne;  he  could 
think  of  nothing  but  a  great  "jewel  casket.'*  So  his 
description  emphasizes  the  harmonious  briUiancy  of  the 
colors  and  the  splendor  of  the  mosaics. 

This  central  idea  in  description  should  be  clear,  and 
then  it  should  dominate  the  whole  picture.  In  the  case 
of  buildings,  or  of  other  things  material,  the  dominating 
impression  is  generally  one  of  form  or  of  size;  if  the  color 
is  striking,  it  may  be  of  color.  Of  persons,  the  strongest 
impression  is  some  quality  of  character  that  shows  itself 
either  in  the  face  or  in  the  pose  of  the  man.  From  this 
central  idea  all  the  details  grow,  and  to  this  primary 
impression  they  all  contribute. 

Generally  this  dominating  idea  in  description  is  an- 
nounced at  or  near  the  beginning.  It  is  an  idea  of  impor- 
tance; and  it  must  occupy  a  position  of  importance.  In 
a  story  we  found  that  something  interesting  must  stand 
at  the  beginning;  and  in  a  description  something  of  im- 
portance must  stand  at  the  beginning.  This  something 
of  importance  is  in  most  cases  the  dominating  idea. 

The  paragraphs  below,  taken  from  David  Copperfield, 
show  how  careful  Dickens  was  to  have  his  readers  know 
what  was  the  dominating  idea  in  anything  he  described. 
Two  distinct  impressions  are  left  by  the  description  of 
the  house:  one  of  its  bulging  appearance;  the  other,  of 
its  spotlessness.  In  the  second  paragraph  there  is  but 
one  idea  —  that  of  a  cadaverous,  skeleton  man. 

At  length  we  stopped  before  a  very  old  house  bulging  out 
over  the  road;  a  house  with  long,  low  lattice-windows  bulging 
out  still  farther,  and  beams  with  carved  heads  on  the  ends 
bulging  out  too,  so  that  I  fancied  the  whole  house  was  leaning 
forward,  trying  to  see  who  was  passing  on  the  narrow  pave- 
ment below.  It  was  quite  spotless  in  its  cleanliness.  The  old- 
fashioned  brass  knocker  on  the  low  arched  door,  ornamented 
with  carved  garlands  of  fruit  and  flowers,  twinkled  like  a  star; 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  127 

the  two  stone  steps  descending  to  the  door  were  as  white  as 
if  they  had  been  covered  with  fair  linen;  and  all  the  angles  and 
corners,  and  carvings  and  mouldings,  and  quaint  little  panes 
of  glass,  and  quainter  little  windows,  though  as  old  as  the  hills, 
were  as  pure  as  any  snow  that  ever  fell  upon  the  hills. 

When  the  pony-chaise  stopped  at  the  door,  and  my  eyes 
were  intent  upon  the  house,  I  saw  a  cadaverous  face  appear 
at  a  small  window  on  the  ground  floor  (in  a  little  round  tower 
that  formed  one  side  of  the  house) ,  and  quickly  disappear.  The 
low  arched  door  then  opened,  and  the  face  came  out.  It  was 
quite  as  cadaverous  as  it  had  looked  in  the  window,  though  in 
the  grain  of  it  there  was  that  tinge  of  red  which  is  sometimes 
to  be  observed  in  the  skins  of  red-haired  people.  It  belonged 
to  a  red-haired  person  —  a  youth  of  fifteen,  as  I  take  it  now, 
but  looking  much  older  —  whose  hair  was  cropped  as  close 
as  the  closest  stubble;  who  had  hardly  any  eyebrows,  and  no 
eyelashes,  and  eyes  of  a  red-brown,  so  unsheltered  and  un- 
shaded that  I  remember  wondering  how  he  went  to  sleep.  He 
was  high-shouldered  and  bony;  dressed  in  decent  black,  with  a 
white  wisp  of  a  neck  cloth;  buttoned  up  to  the  throat;  and  had 
a  long,  lank,  skeleton  hand,  which  particularly  attracted  my 
attention,  as  he  stood  at  the  pony's  head,  rubbing  his  chin 
with  it,  and  looking  up  at  us  in  the  chaise. 

The  following  paragraphs  are  good  illustrations  of 
this  same  principle :  — 

1.  He  was  brindled  and  gray  like  Rubislaw  granite;  his  hair 
short,  hard,  and  close,  like  a  lion's;  his  body  thick-set,  like 
a  little  bull,  —  a  sort  of  compressed  Hercules  of  a  dog. 
He  must  have  been  ninety  pounds  weight  at  the  least; 
he  had  a  large  blunt  head;  his  muzzle  black  as  night,  his 
mouth  blacker  than  any  night,  a  tooth  or  two  —  being 
all  he  had  —  gleaming  out  of  his  jaws  of  darkness.  His 
head  was  scarred  with  the  records  of  old  wounds,  a  sort  of 
series  of  fields  of  battle  all  over  it;  one  eye  out,  one  ear 
cropped  as  close  as  was  Archbishop  Leighton's  father's. 
—  Dr.  John  Brown. 

2.  On  entering  the  amphitheatre,  new  objects  of  wonder 
presented  themselves.  On  a  level  spot  in  the  centre  was  a 
company  of  odd-looking  personages  playing  at  ninepins. 


128  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

They  were  dressed  in  quaint,  outlandish  fashion;  some  wore 
short  doublets,  others  jerkins,  with  long  knives  in  their 
belts,  and  most  of  them  had  enormous  breeches,  of  similar 
style  with  that  of  the  guide's.  Their  visages,  too,  were 
peculiar:  one  had  a  large  beard,  broad  face,  and  small 
piggish  eyes;  the  face  of  another  seemed  to  consist  en- 
tirely of  nose,  and  was  surmounted  by  a  white  sugar-loaf 
hat,  set  off  with  a  red  cock's  tail.  They  all  had  beards, 
of  various  shapes  and  colors.  There  was  one  who  seemed 
to  be  the  commander.  He  was  a  stout  old  gentleman,  with 
a  weather-beaten  countenance;  he  wore  a  laced  doublet, 
broad  belt  and  hanger,  high  crowned  hat  and  feather, 
red  stockings,  and  high-heeled  shoes,  with  red  roses  in 
them.  The  whole  group  reminded  Rip  of  the  figures  in 
an  old  Flemish  painting,  in  the  parlor  of  Dominie  Van 
Schaick,  the  village  parson.  —  Irving. 

In  some  descriptions  the  dominating  idea  is  the  feel- 
ing aroused  by  the  object.  It  may  be  horror,  as  in  a 
description  of  a  haimted  house  or  of  a  murderer;  it  may 
be  the  feeling  of  love,  which  would  run  through  a  de- 
scription of  the  old  home  or  of  a  sainted  mother.  The 
emotion  occasioned  is  generally  mentioned  or  suggested 
at  once,  and  the  details  that  called  forth  the  feeling 
are  given  afterward. 

1.  I  do  not  know  if  I  was  what  you  call  afraid;  but  my  heart 
beat  like  a  bird's,  both  quick  and  little;  and  there  was  a 
dimness  came  before  my  eyes  which  I  continually  rubbed 
away,  and  which  continually  returned.  As  for  hope,  I  had 
none;  but  only  a  darkness  of  despair  and  sort  of  anger 
against  all  the  world  that  made  me  long  to  sell  my  life 
as  dear  as  I  was  able.  I  tried  to  pray,  I  remember,  but 
that  same  hurry  of  my  mind,  like  a  man  running,  would 
not  suffer  me  to  think  upon  the  words;  and  my  chief  wish 
was  to  have  the  thing  begin  and  be  done  w  ith  it.  —  Ste- 
venson.^ 

2.  During  the  whole  of  a  dull,  dark,  and  soundless  day  in  the 
autumn  of  the  year,  when  the  clouds  hung  oppressively 

X  Bj  permission  of  the  Publishers,  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  129 

low  in  the  heavens,  I  had  been  passing  alone,  on  horse- 
back, through  a  singularly  dreary  tract  of  country,  and  at 
length  found  myself,  as  the  shades  of  the  evening  drew  on, 
within  view  of  the  melancholy  House  of  Usher.  I  know 
not  how  it  was  —  but,  with  the  first  glimpse  of  the  build- 
ing, a  sense  of  insufferable  gloom  pervaded  my  spirit.  I  say 
insufferable;  for  the  feeling  was  unrelieved  by  any  of  that 
half-pleasurable,  because  poetic,  sentiment  with  which 
the  mind  usually  receives  even  the  sternest  natural  images 
of  the  desolate  or  terrible.  I  looked  upon  the  scene  before 
me  —  upon  the  mere  house,  and  the  simple  landscape 
features  of  the  domain  —  upon  the  bleak  walls  —  upon 
the  vacant  eye-like  windows  —  upon  a  few  rank  sedges  — 
and  upon  a  few  white  trunks  of  decayed  trees  —  with  an 
utter  depression  of  soul  which  I  can  compare  to  no  earthly 
sensation  more  properly  than  to  the  after-dream  of  the 
reveler  upon  opium  —  the  bitter  lapse  into  every-day 
life  —  the  hideous  dropping  off  of  the  veil.  There  was  an 
iciness,  a  sinking,  a  sickening  of  the  heart  —  an  unre- 
deemed dreariness  of  thought  which  no  goading  of  the 
imagination  could  torture  into  aught  of  the  sublime.  .  .  . 
It  was  possible,  I  reflected,  that  a  mere  different  arrange- 
ment of  the  particulars  of  the  scene,  of  the  details  of  the 
picture,  would  be  sufficient  to  modify,  or  perhaps  to  anni- 
hilate its  capacity  for  sorrowful  impression;  and,  acting 
upon  this  idea,  I  reined  my  horse  to  the  precipitous  brink 
of  a  black  and  lurid  tarn  that  lay  in  unruffled  lustre  by 
the  dwelling,  and  gazed  down  —  but  with  a  shudder  even 
more  thrilling  than  before  —  upon  the  remodeled  and  in- 
verted images  of  the  gray  sedge,  and  the  ghastly  tree- 
stems,  and  the  vacant  and  eye-like  windows.  —  Poe. 

S.  She  had  made  an  effort  to  put  on  something  like  mourning 
for  her  son;  and  nothing  could  be  more  touching  than  this 
struggle  between  pious  affection  and  utter  poverty :  a  black 
ribbon  or  so,  a  faded  black  handkerchief,  and  one  or  two 
more  such  humble  attempts  to  express  by  outward  signs 
that  grief  which  passes  show.  —  Irving. 

4.  It  was  by  the  sea  that  I  lived,  in  a  town  that  was  unlovely 
enough  were  it  not  for  its  glorious  neighbor.  And  who 
cares  for  the  town  when  one  can  sit  on  the  beach  at  the 


180  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

headland,  and  look  out  over  the  huge,  blue  bay,  and  the 
yellow  scimitar  that  curves  before  it.  I  loved  it  when  its 
great  face  was  freckled  with  the  fishing  boats,  and  I  loved 
it  when  the  big  ships  went  past,  far  out,  a  little  hillock  of 
white  and  no  hull,  with  topsails  curved  like  a  bodice,  so 
stately  and  demure.  But  most  of  all  I  loved  it  when  no 
trace  of  man  marred  the  majesty  of  Nature,  and  when 
the  sun-bursts  slanted  down  on  it  from  between  the  drift- 
ing rain-clouds.  Then  I  have  seen  the  farther  edge  draped 
in  the  gauze  of  the  driving  rain,  with  its  thin  grey  shading 
under  the  slow  clouds,  while  my  headland  was  golden, 
and  the  sun  gleamed  upon  the  breakers  and  struck  deep 
through  the  green  waves  beyond,  showing  up  the  purple 
patches  where  the  beds  of  seaweed  are  lying.  Such  a 
morning  as  that,  with  the  wind  in  his  hair  and  the  spray 
on  his  lips,  and  the  cry  of  the  eddying  gulls  in  his  ear,  may 
send  a  man  back  braced  afresh  to  the  dead,  drab  weariness 
of  practice.  —  Conan  Doyle. 
6.  When  Agrippina  has  breakfasted,  and  washed,  and  sits  in 
the  sunlight  blinking  at  me  with  aflFectionate  contempt, 
I  feel  soothed  by  her  absolute  and  unqualified  enjoyment. 
I  know  how  full  my  day  will  be  of  things  that  I  don't 
want  particularly  to  do,  and  that  are  not  particularly 
worth  doing;  but  for  her,  time  and  the  world  hold  only 
this  brief  moment  of  contentment.  Slowly  the  eyes  close, 
gently  the  little  body  is  relaxed.  Oh,  you  who  strive  to 
relieve  your  overwrought  nerves,  and  cultivate  power 
through  repose,  watch  the  exquisite  languor  of  a  drowsy 
cat,  and  despair  of  imitating  such  perfect  and  restful 
grace!  There  is  a  gradual  yielding  of  every  muscle  to  the 
soft  persuasiveness  of  slumber;  the  flexible  frame  is  curved 
in  tender  lines,  the  head  nestles  lower,  the  paws  are 
tucked  out  of  sight;  no  convulsive  throb  or  start  betrays 
a  rebellious  alertness;  only  a  faint  quiver  of  an  uncon- 
scious satisfaction,  a  faint  heaving  of  the  tawny  sides,  a 
faint  gleam  of  the  half-shut  yellow  eyes,  and  Agrippina  is 
asleep.  I  look  at  her  for  one  wistful  moment,  and  then 
turn  resolutely  to  my  work.  It  were  ignoble  to  wish  my- 
self in  her  place,  and  yet  how  charming  to  be  able  to  settle 
down  to  a  nap,  sans  peur  and  sans  reproche,  at  ten  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  —  Agnes  Repplieb. 


AERANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  181 

Sometimes  when  the  description  is  to  be  long,  or  when 
the  object  will  lend  itself  to  such  a  treatment,  a  definite, 
easily  understood  shape  or  form  may  be  suggested  at 
the  beginning.  Notice  Newman's  first  sentence  de- 
scribing Attica :  — 

A  confined  triangle,  perhaps  fifty  miles  its  greatest  length, 
and  thirty  its  greatest  breadth. 

The  following  is  from  Loma  Doone :  — 

She  stood  at  the  head  of  a  deep  green  valley,  carved  from 
out  the  mountains  in  a  perfect  oval,  with  a  fence  of  sheer  rock 
standing  round  it,  eighty  feet  or  a  hundred  high,  from  whose 
brink  black  wooded  hills  swept  up  to  the  sky  line.  By  her  side 
a  little  river  glided  out  from  underground  with  a  soft,  dark 
babble,  unaware  of  daylight;  then  growing  brighter,  lapsed 
away,  and  fell  into  the  valley.  —  Blackmore. 

The  next  is  the  first  paragraph  of  a  long  description 
of  the  battlefield  of  Waterloo  by  Victor  Hugo:  — 

Those  who  would  get  a  clear  idea  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo 
have  only  to  lay  down  upon  the  ground  in  their  mind  a  capi- 
tal letter  A.  The  left  stroke  of  the  A  is  the  road  to  Nivelles, 
the  right  stroke  is  the  road  from  Genappe,  the  cross  of  the 
A  is  the  sunken  road  from  Ohain  to  Braine  I'AUeud.  The  top 
of  the  A  is  Mont  Saint  Jean,  Wellington  is  there;  the  left- 
hand  lower  point  is  Hougomont,  Reille  is  there  with  Jerome 
Bonaparte;  the  right-hand  lower  point  is  La  Belle  Alliance, 
Napoleon  is  there.  A  little  below  the  point  where  the  cross 
of  the  A  meets  and  cuts  the  right  stroke,  is  La  Haie  Sainte.  At 
the  middle  of  this  cross  is  the  precise  point  where  the  final 
battle  word  was  spoken.  There  the  line  is  placed,  the  invol- 
untary symbol  of  the  supreme  heroism  of  the  Imperial  Guard. 
The  triangle  contained  at  the  top  of  the  A,  between  the  two 
strokes  and  the  cross,  is  the  plateau  of  Mont  Saint  Jean.  The 
struggle  for  this  plateau  was  the  whole  of  the  battle.  —  Vic- 
tor Hugo. 

EXERCISE 
Below  are  four  themes  for  a  description.    You  will 
note  that  they  are  all  upon  the  same  subject.  Will  you 


132  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

write  upon  two  of  them,  trying  to  bring  out  in  sharp 
contrast  the  dominating  ideas  of  the  two  descriptions? 

OUR  NEIGHBOR'S  PUPPY 

1.  He  was  such  a  cunning,  saucy-looking  little  fellow,  with 
that  dark  patch  encircling  one  eye;  its  mate  gleamed  like 
a  shiny,  black  marble  in  its  setting  of  white. 

2.  Of  all  snippy,  snarly  dogs,  Pompey  was  the  worst.  To 
begin  with,  his  color  was  a  hideous  shade  of  yellow, 
and  .  .  . 

8.  His  name  just  suited  him.  Hero,  he  was  called.  One  could 
tell  the  kind  of  dog  he  was  going  to  be  —  big,  faithful, 
and  kind. 

4.  was  such  a  knowing  little  dog.  His  small  owner  de- 
clared there  was  nothing  he  did  not  understand,  and 
claimed  that  he  could  do  almost  everything  but  talk. 

The  end.  The  end  of  a  description  is  equally  as  im- 
portant as  the  opening.  In  most  descriptions,  whether 
short  or  long,  the  most  important  detail^  the  detail  that 
emphasizes  most  the  dominating  idea,  stands  at  the  end. 
If  the  description  is  very  short,  it  should  have  no  intro- 
ductory sentence  announcing  the  dominating  idea;  there 
should  be  just  a  few  well-selected  details  given,  and 
arranged  so  that  the  most  suggestive  stand  at  the 
end.  If  the  description  is  long,  the  end  may  be  a  very 
important  detail ;  or  it  may  be  a  repetition  of  the  open- 
ing statement  in  a  new  and  more  striking  form.  If  the 
description  is  one  portraying  change  or  movement,  the 
end  will  be  the  climax  of  the  movement,  the  result  of  the 
change. 

1.  A  broad  ray  of  light  fell  into  the  garret,  and  showed  the 
workman,  with  an  unfinished  shoe  upon  his  lap,  pausing 
in  his  labor.  His  few  common  tools  and  various  scraps 
of  leather  were  at  his  feet  and  on  his  bench.  He  had  a 
white  beard,  raggedly  cut,  but  not  very  long,  a  hollow  face. 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  133 

and  exceedingly  bright  eyes.  The  hoUowness  and  thinness 
of  his  face  would  have  caused  them  to  look  large,  under 
his  yet  dark  eyebrows  and  his  confused  white  hair,  though 
they  had  been  really  otherwise;  but  they  were  naturally 
large,  and  looked  unnaturally  so.  His  yellow  rags  of  shirt 
lay  open  at  the  throat  and  showed  his  body  to  be  withered 
and  worn.  He,  and  his  old  canvas  frock,  and  his  loose 
stockings,  and  all  his  poor  tatters  of  clothes,  had,  in  a  long 
seclusion  from  direct  light  and  air,  faded  down  to  such 
a  dull  uniformity  of  parchment-yellow,  that  it  would  have 
been  hard  to  say  which  was  which.  —  Dickens. 

2.  Carstairs  went  out  to  sketch  Broadway  at  One  Hundred 
and  Fifty-ninth  Street,  where  it  is  more  of  a  country  road 
than  anything  else,  and  his  hands  almost  froze  while  he 
was  getting  down  the  black  lines  of  the  bare  trees,  and  the 
deep,  irregular  ruts  in  the  road,  where  the  mud  showed 
through  the  snow.  He  intended  to  put  a  yellow  sky  be- 
hind this,  and  a  house  with  smoke  coming  out  of  the 
chimney,  and  with  red  light  shining  through  the  window, 
and  call  it  Winter.  —  Richard  Harding  Davis. 

3.  Shaking  off  from  my  spirit  what  must  have  been  a  dream, 
I  scanned  more  narrowly  the  real  aspect  of  the  building. 
Its  principal  feature  seemed  to  be  that  of  an  excessive  an- 
tiquity. The  discoloration  of  ages  had  been  great.  Minute 
fungi  overspread  the  whole  exterior,  hanging  in  a  fine 
tangled  web-work  from  the  eaves.  Yet  all  this  was  apart 
from  any  extraordinary  dilapidation.  No  portion  of  the 
masonry  had  fallen;  and  there  appeared  to  be  a  wild  in- 
consistency between  its  still  perfect  adaptation  of  parts 
and  the  crumbling  condition  of  the  individual  stones. 
In  this  there  was  much  that  reminded  me  of  the  specious 
totality  of  old  wood-work,  which  has  rotted  for  long  years 
in  some  neglected  vault,  with  no  disturbance  from  the 
breath  of  the  external  air.  Beyond  this  indication  of 
extensive  decay,  however,  the  fabric  gave  little  token  of 
instability.  Perhaps  the  eye  of  a  scrutinizing  observer 
might  have  discovered  a  barely  perceptible  fissure,  which, 
extending  from  the  roof  of  the  building  in  front,  made  its 
way  down  the  wall  in  a  zigzag  direction,  until  it  became 
lost  in  the  sullen  waters  of  the  tarn.  —  Foe. 


IM  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

In  this  last  every  detail  emphasizes  the  "excessive 
antiquity"  of  the  house;  and  on  reading  the  story  there 
is  no  question  of  the  importance  of  the  "barely  per- 
ceptible fissure."  Thereby  hangs  the  tale. 

4.  The  reader  is  desired  to  mark  this  Monk.  A  personable 
man  of  seven  and  forty,  stout  made,  stands  erect  as  a 
pillar;  with  bushy  eyebrows,  the  eyes  of  him  beaming 
onto  you  in  a  really  strange  way;  his  face  massive,  grave, 
with  a  very  eminent  nose;  his  head  almost  bald,  its  auburn 
remnants  of  hair  and  the  copious  ruddy  beard  getting 
slightly  streaked  with  gray.  This  is  Brother  Samson;  a 
man  worth  looking  at.  —  Carlyle. 

5.  He  inclined  his  head  in  a  stately,  old-world  fashion,  and 
seated  himself  upon  the  bench.  Seeing  that  he  had  no  wish 
to  speak,  I  was  silent  also,  but  I  could  not  help  watching 
him  out  of  the  corners  of  my  eyes,  for  he  was  such  a 
wonderful  survival  of  the  early  half  of  the  century,  with 
his  low-crowned,  curly-brimmed  hat,  his  black  satin  tie 
which  fastened  with  a  buckle  at  the  back,  and,  above  all, 
his  large,  fleshy,  clean-shaven  face  shot  with  its  mesh 
of  wrinkles.  Those  eyes,  ere  they  had  grown  dim,  had 
looked  out  from  the  box-seat  of  mail-coaches,  and  had 
seen  the  knots  of  navvies  as  they  toiled  on  the  brown  em- 
bankments. Those  lips  had  smiled  over  the  first  numbers 
of  "Pickwick,"  and  had  gossiped  of  the  promising  young 
man  who  wrote  them.  The  face  itself  was  a  seventy-year 
almanac,  and  every  seam  an  entry  upon  it  where  pub- 
lic as  well  as  private  sorrow  left  its  trace.  That  pucker 
on  the  forehead  stood  for  the  Mutiny,  perhaps;  that  line 
of  care  for  the  Crimean  winter,  it  may  be;  and  that  last 
little  sheaf  of  wrinkles,  as  my  fancy  hoped,  for  the  death 
of  Gordon.  And  so,  as  I  dreamed  in  my  foolish  way,  the 
old  gentleman  with  the  shining  stock  was  gone,  and  it 
was  seventy  years  of  a  great  nation's  life  that  took  shape 
before  me  on  the  headland  in  the  morning.  —  Conan 
Doyle. 

,  The  two  following  are  descriptions  of  dawn,  of  change; 
they  have  marked  climaxes.    The  first  is  by  Edward 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  135 

Everett,  the  second  by  Stevenson.    The  similarity  in 
choice  of  words  and  in  feeling  is  remarkable. 

1.  Such  was  the  glorious  spectacle  as  I  entered  the  train. 
As  we  proceeded,  the  timid  approach  of  twilight  became 
more  perceptible;  the  intense  blue  of  the  sky  began  to 
soften;  the  smaller  stars,  like  little  children,  went  first  to 
rest;  the  sister  beams  of  the  Pleiades  soon  melted  together; 
but  the  bright  constellations  of  west  and  north  remained 
unchanged.  Steadily  the  wondrous  transfiguration  went 
on.  Hands  of  angels,  hidden  from  mortal  eyes,  shifted  the 
scenery  of  the  heavens;  the  glories  of  night  dissolved  into 
the  glories  of  dawn.  The  blue  sky  now  turned  more  softly 
gray;  the  great  watch-stars  shut  up  their  holy  eyes;  the 
east  began  to  kindle.  Faint  streaks  of  purple  soon  blushed 
along  the  sky;  the  whole  celestial  concave  was  filled  with 
the  inflowing  tides  of  the  morning  light,  which  came  pour- 
ing down  from  above  in  one  great  ocean  of  radiance,  till 
at  length,  as  we  reached  the  Blue  Hills,  a  flash  of  purple 
blazed  out  from  above  the  horizon,  and  turned  the  dewy 
teardrops  of  flower  and  leaf  into  rubies  and  diamonds. 
In  a  few  seconds,  the  everlasting  gates  of  morning  were 
thrown  wide  open,  and  the  lord  of  day,  arrayed  in  glories 
too  severe  for  the  gaze  of  man,  began  his  state. 

2.  At  last  she  began  to  be  aware  of  a  wonderful  revolution, 
compared  to  which  the  fire  of  Mittwalden  Palace  was 
but  a  crack  and  flash  of  a  percussion  cap.  The  counten- 
ance with  which  the  pines  regarded  her  began  insensibly 
to  change;  the  grass,  too,  short  as  it  was,  and  the  whole 
winding  staircase  of  the  brook's  course,  began  to  wear  a 
solemn  freshness  of  appearance.  And  this  slow  trans- 
figuration reached  her  heart,  and  played  upon  it,  and 
transpierced  it  with  a  serious  thrill.  She  looked  all  about; 
the  whole  face  of  nature  looked  back,  brimful  of  mean- 
ing, finger  on  lip,  leaking  its  glad  secret.  She  looked  up. 
Heaven  was  almost  emptied  of  stars.  Such  as  still  lin- 
gered shone  with  a  changed  and  waning  brightness,  and 
began  to  faint  in  their  stations.  And  the  color  of  the  sky 
itself  was  most  wonderful;  or  the  rich  blue  of  the  night 
had  now  melted  and  softened  and  brightened;  and  there 


136  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

had  succeeded  a  hue  that  has  no  name,  and  that  is  never 
seen  but  as  the  herald  of  the  morning.  *'0h!"  she  cried, 
joy  catching  at  her  voice,  "Oh!  it  is  the  dawn!"  .  .  . 
Soon  she  had  struggled  to  a  certain  hilltop,  and  saw  far 
before  her  the  silent  inflooding  of  the  day.  Out  of  the  East 
it  welled  and  whitened;  the  darkness  trembled  into  light; 
and  the  stars  were  extinguished  like  the  street-lamps  of 
a  human  city.  The  whiteness  brightened  into  silver;  the 
silver  warmed  into  gold,  and  the  gold  kindled  into  pure 
and  living  fire;  and  the  face  of  the  East  was  barred  with 
elemental  scarlet.  The  day  drew  its  first  long  breath, 
steady  and  chill;  and  for  leagues  around  the  woods  sighed 
and  shivered.  And  then  at  one  bound  the  sun  floated  up. 
.  .  .  The  day  was  come,  plain  and  garish;  and  up  the 
steep  and  solitary  eastern  heaven,  the  sun,  victorious  over 
his  competitors,  continued  slowly  and  royally  to  mount.^ 

Proportion.  One  thing  further  should  be  said  regard- 
ing arrangement,  and  this  concerns  Mass.  Not  every- 
thing can  stand  first  or  last;  some  important  details 
must  be  placed  in  the  midst  of  a  description.  These  par- 
ticulars are  not  of  equal  importance.  To  give  to  an 
important  detail  the  emphasis  it  deserves,  the  writer 
must  call  into  use  another  principle  of  composition. 
This  is  termed  Proportion.  By  Proportion  of  treatment 
is  meant,  that  an  important  matter  shall  receive  lengthy 
treatment,  while  unimportant  details  shall  be  passed 
over  with  a  word,  or  altogether  omitted.  To  each  detail 
in  a  paragraph  shall  be  given  a  length  of  discussion 
proportionate  to  its  importance.  Proportion  in  the 
length  of  treatment  is  a  guide  to  the  relative  importance 
of  the  matters  introduced  into  the  description. 

In  the  description  of  the  House  of  Usher,  position 
emphasizes  the  barely  preceptible  fissure;  Proportion 
singles  out  the  crumbling  condition  of  the  individual 
stones,  and  makes  this  detail  more  emphatic  than  either 

1  By  pennisBion  of  the  Publishers,  Charles  Scribner'i  Sons. 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  137 

the  discoloration  or  the  fungi.  In  Newman's  descrip- 
tion, the  olive-tree,  the  brilliant  atmosphere,  the  thyme, 
the  bees,  all  add  to  the  charms  of  bright  and  beautiful 
Athens;  but,  most  of  all,  the  iEgean,  with  its  chain  of 
islands,  its  dark  violet  billows,  its  jets  of  silver,  the  heav- 
ing and  panting  of  its  long  waves.  It  is  the  restless, 
living  element  that  fascinates  and  enraptures,  and  it  is  to 
this  that  he  devotes,  proportionately,  the  greatest  space 
and  the  final  position.  Position  and  Proportion  are  the 
means  of  emphasis  in  a  paragraph  of  description. 

Order  of  details.  Having  settled  the  way  in  which 
emphasis  is  given  to  the  important  details  in  a  descrip- 
tion, the  next  matter  for  consideration  is  the  order  in 
which  details  should  be  arranged.  If  the  parts  of  a  de- 
scription are  to  be  coherent,  to  hold  together,  they  must 
be  arranged  in  the  order  in  which  they  would  naturally 
be  perceived.  What  first  arrests  the  attention  should  be 
mentioned  first;  and  the  other  details  should  follow 
as  they  are  naturally  seen.   This  is  the  general  law. 

The  usual  way  of  observing  and  describing  a  building 
is  from  foundation  to  turret  stone;  for  this  is  the  order 
in  which  the  eye  takes  in  a  building.  A  landscape  may 
be  described  by  beginning  with  what  is  near  and  extend- 
ing the  view;  this  is  common.  Sometimes  the  very  op- 
posite plan  is  pursued;  or,  one  may  begin  on  either  hand 
and  advance  toward  the  other.  Of  a  person  near  by, 
the  face  is  the  first  thing  observed;  for  it  is  there  that 
character  can  be  best  discovered.  Afterward,  details 
of  clothing  follow  as  they  would  naturally  be  noticed. 
If  a  person  be  at  a  distance,  his  pose  and  carriage  are 
about  all  that  can  be  seen;  as  he  approaches,  other  de- 
tails are  mentioned  as  they  come  into  view. 

To  arrange  details  in  the  order  in  which  they  are 
naturally  observed  will  result  in  placing  together  the 


138  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

details  that  are  close  together  in  the  objects.  Jumping 
about  in  a  description  is  a  source  of  confusion.  How 
entirely  it  may  ruin  a  paragraph  can  be  estimated  by 
the  effect  upon  this  single  sentence:  "  He  was  tall,  with 
feet  that  might  have  served  for  shovels,  narrow  should- 
ers, hands  that  dangled  a  mile  out  of  his  sleeves,  long 
arms  and  legs,  and  his  whole  frame  most  loosely  hung 
together."  This  rearrangement  makes  but  a  disjointed 
and  feeble  impression;  and  the  reason  is  this:  an  order 
in  which  no  person  ever  observed  a  man  has  been  sub- 
stituted for  the  commonest  order  —  from  head  to  foot. 
Arrange  details  so  that  the  parts  that  are  near  together 
shall  be  associated  in  the  description,  and  proceed  in  the 
order  in  which  the  details  are  naturally  observed. 

The  following  is  by  Irving;  he  is  describing  the  stage- 
coachman: — 

He  has  commonly  a  broad,  full  face,  curiously  mottled 
with  red,  as  if  the  blood  had  been  forced  by  hard  feeding  into 
every  vessel  of  the  skin;  he  is  swelled  into  jolly  dimensions 
by  frequent  potations  of  malt  liquors,  and  his  bulk  is  still 
further  increased  by  a  multiplicity  of  coats,  in  which  he  is 
buried  like  a  cauliflower,  the  upper  one  reaching  to  his  heels. 
He  wears  a  broad-brimmed,  low-crowned  hat;  a  huge  roll  of 
colored  handkerchief  about  his  neck,  knowingly  knotted  and 
tucked  in  at  the  bosom;  and  has  in  summer-time  a  large 
bouquet  of  flowers  in  his  buttonhole;  the  present,  most  prob- 
ably, of  some  enamored  country  lass.  His  waistcoat  is  com- 
monly of  some  bright  color,  striped,  and  his  small-clothes 
extend  far  below  the  knees,  to  meet  a  pair  of  jockey-boots 
which  reach  about  half  way  up  his  legs. 

Below  are  given  a  number  of  paragraphs  illustrating 
the  order  in  which  descriptions  are  generally  written:  — 

1.  Presently  I  saw  a  low  gray  house  standing  on  a  grassy 
bank  close  to  the  road.  The  door  was  half  off  its  hinges, 
and  the  window-sills  seemed  to  touch  the  ground.  In  one 
window  an  old  man  sat,  and  the  eave  above,  which  was 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  139 

half  way  down  from  rot  and  oldness,  shaded  him.  One 
window  of  the  upper  story  was  minus  a  pane.  Several 
shingles  were  missing  from  the  roof,  and  the  whole  house 
seemed  to  totter.  —  Sarah  Orne  Jewett. 

2.  At  the  head  of  this  dilapidated  wharf  .  .  .  stands  a 
spacious  edifice  of  brick.  From  the  loftiest  point  of  its 
roof,  floats  or  droops,  in  breeze  or  calm,  the  banner  of 
the  Republic.  ...  Its  front  is  ornamented  by  a  portico 
of  half  a  dozen  wooden  pillars,  supporting  a  balcony, 
beneath  which  a  flight  of  wide  granite  steps  descends 
towards  the  street.  —  Hawthorne. 

3.  Have  you  ever  seen  a  horse-yacht.?  Sometimes  it  is  called 
a  scow;  but  that  sounds  common.  Sometimes  it  is  called  a 
house-boat;  but  that  is  too  English.  What  does  it  profit 
a  man  to  have  a  whole  dictionary  full  of  language  at  his 
service,  unless  he  can  invent  a  new  and  suggestive  name 
for  his  friend's  pleasure-craft.?  The  foundation  of  the 
horse-yacht  .  .  .  is  a  flat-bottomed  boat,  some  fifty  feet 
long  and  ten  feet  wide,  with  a  draft  of  about  eight 
inches.  The  deck  is  open  for  fifteen  feet  aft  of  the  place 
where  the  bow-sprit  ought  to  be;  behind  that  it  is  com- 
pletely covered  by  a  house,  cabin,  cottage,  or  whatever 
you  choose  to  call  it,  with  straight  sides  and  a  peaked  roof 
of  a  very  early  Gothic  pattern.  Looking  in  at  the  door, 
you  see,  first  of  all,  two  cots,  one  on  either  side  of  the  pas- 
sage; then  an  open  space  with  a  dining- table,  a  stove, 
and  some  chairs;  beyond  that  a  pantry  with  shelves,  and 
a  great  chest  for  provisions.  A  door  at  the  back  opens  into 
the  kitchen,  and  from  that  another  door  opens  into  a 
sleeping-room  for  the  boatmen.  A  huge  wooden  tiller 
curves  under  the  stern  of  the  boat,  and  the  helmsman 
stands  upon  the  kitchen  roof.  Two  canoes  are  floating 
behind,  holding  back,  at  the  end  of  their  long  tow-rop)es, 
as  if  reluctant  to  follow  so  clumsy  a  leader.  This  is  an 
accurate  and  duly  attested  description  of  the  horse-yacht. 
If  necessary  it  could  be  sworn  to  before  a  notary  public. 
But  I  am  perfectly  sure  that  you  might  read  this  through 
without  skipping  a  word,  and  if  you  had  never  seen  the 
creature  with  your  own  eyes,  you  would  have  no  idea  how 
absurd  it  looks  and  how  comfortable  it  is.  —  Van  Dyke.* 

1  Copyright,  18!)5, 1903,  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.    By  permiBdon  of  the  Publiahen. 


140  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

4.  In  his  indecision  he  turned  and  surveyed  the  scene  around. 
Not  a  soul  was  anywhere  visible.  The  garden-path 
stretched  downward  from  his  feet,  gleaming  like  the  track 
of  a  snail;  the  roof  of  the  little  well  (mostly  dry),  the  well- 
cover,  the  top  rail  of  the  garden  gate,  were  varnished  with 
the  same  dull  liquid  glaze;  while,  far  away  in  the  vale,  a 
faint  whiteness  of  more  than  usual  extent  showed  that 
the  rivers  were  high  in  the  meads.  Beyond  all  this  winked 
a  few  bleared  lamplights  through  the  beating  drops — lights 
that  denoted  the  situation  of  the  county-town  from  which 
he  had  appeared  to  come.  The  absence  of  all  notes  of  life 
in  that  direction  seemed  to  clinch  his  intentions,  and  he 
knocked  at  the  door.  —  Thomas  Hardy. 

6.  Far  oflF  upon  the  distant  sky-line,  half  hidden  by  the  heave 
of  the  waves,  was  the  low  white  fringe  of  cliffs  which 
skirted  England.  Between  him  and  them  lay  the  broad, 
blue  channel,  seamed  and  flecked  with  flushing  foam,  for 
a  sharp  sea  was  running,  and  the  few  ships  in  sight  were 
laboring  heavily. 

Nigel's  eyes  traversed  the  wide-spreading  view,  rejoicing 
in  the  change  from  the  gray  wall  of  his  cramped  chamber. 
Finally  they  settled  on  a  strange  object  at  his  feet.  — 
CoNAN  Doyle. 

6.  In  marched  the  lawyer,  whose  well-brushed  black  coat, 
and  well-powdered  wig,  together  with  his  point  ruflBes, 
brown  silk  stockings,  highly  varnished  shoes,  and  gold 
buckles,  exhibited  the  pains  which  the  old  gentleman  had 
taken  to  prepare  his  person  for  the  ladies'  society.  — 
Scott. 

7.  If  you  had  seen  John  at  this  time  you  might  have  thought 
he  was  only  a  shabbily  dressed  country  lad,  and  you  never 
would  have  guessed  what  beautiful  thoughts  he  some- 
times had  as  he  went  stubbing  his  toes  along  the  dusty 
road,  nor  what  a  chivalrous  little  fellow  he  was.  You 
would  have  seen  a  short  boy,  barefooted,  with  trousers  at 
once  too  big  and  too  short,  held  up  perhaps  by  one  sus- 
pender only,  a  checked  cotton  shirt,  and  a  hat  of  braided 
palm-leaf,  frayed  at  the  edges,  and  bulged  up  in  the  crown. 
—  Warner. 


ARRAJSTGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  141 


EXERCISE 

Let  us  imagine  that  we  are  to  write  on  one  of  the 
following  subjects.  We  have  all  seen  one  of  the  objects. 
If  there  is  one  near  you,  go  look  at  it  again  in  order  to 
receive  a  fresh  impression  before  you  write.  Then  fol- 
low an  outline  somewhat  like  this :  — 

THE  DESERTED  HOUSE 

a.  An  opening  sentence  in  which  the  point  of  view  and  the 
dominant  idea  are  given. 

b.  The  approach  to  the  house;  its  ill-kept  lawn  and  the  neg- 
lected surroundings. 

c.  The  decayed  steps;  the  sunken  porch-floor. 

d.  The  half-fallen  door;  a  glimpse  within.  (Remember,  your 
point  of  view  will  not  allow  you  to  see  much  within  the 
door.) 

e.  The  broken  windows.   (What  do  they  suggest  to  you?) 
/.  The  old  roof  and  chimneys. 

g.  An  ending  sentence,  re-stating  the  idea  your  picture  is  to 
convey.  (Give  the  thought  in  different  words  from  those 
of  the  opening  sentence.  Express  the  feeling  the  whole 
picture  gives  to  you  as  you  look  at  it.) 

A  PLEASING  LANDSCAPE 

a.  State  in  the  opening  sentence  what  the  central  thought 
is,  and  from  what  point  you  view  the  picture.  Let  it  be 
from  your  window,  or  from  some  hill,  or  from  any  ele- 
vated place  where  the  eye  can  travel  far  and  note  different 
details. 

b.  Objects  in  the  foreground  that  help  the  dominant  idea; 
as  a  stream  half-hidden  by  willows,  a  road  winding  along, 
a  meadow  with  grazing  cattle,  or  a  waving  grain-field 
ready  for  harvest. 

C.  Objects  in  the  middle  distance  that  help  the  dominant 
idea;  as  a  white  farm-house  surrounded  by  its  barns  and 
orchards,  the  divisions  of  fields  forming  distinct  values  of 
color,  a  placid  lake  reflecting  the  glow  of  the  sky. 

d.  Objects  in  the  distance  that  contribute  to  the  dominant 


142  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

idea;  as  the  haze  on  the  horizon,  the  rays  of  the  setting 
sun,  the  hght  on  the  clouds,  the  colors  of  the  sky. 

MY  BABY  SISTER   (OR  BROTHER) 
o.  In  an  easy,  natural  way  state  the  general  impression  you 

have  of  little  sister  in  your  first  sentence. 
b.  Her  features,  particularly  the  expression.   (Do  her  eyes, 

her  hair,  her  mouth  show  your  idea?   Choose  any  feature 

that  does  help  to  show  your  purpose  and  will  make  your 

reader  see  her  as  you  do.) 
e.  Her  actions,  especially  the  way  she  uses  her  head;  her 

hands;  or  the  way  she  walks  or  carries  herself. 

d.  Her  little  ways  of  doing  things,  or  saying  things. 

e.  An  ending  sentence  which  repeats  the  central  thought  in 
other  words  than  the  opening  sentence. 

In  1,  let  e  be  emphasized  by  proportion,  and  g  by 
position. 

In  2,  have  b  emphasized  by  proportion. 
In  3,  let  d  be  emphasized  by  position. 

PARAGRAPHS   IN  DESCRIPTION 

In  the  chapter  on  narration,  it  was  laid  down  as  a  rule 
that  a  paragraph  should  be  devoted  to  each  topic  in  the 
story  outline.  As  we  have  seen  in  the  illustrations  given, 
nearly  all  descriptions  are  of  a  single  object,  or  of  a 
group  of  objects  making  a  single  picture;  and,  for  this 
reason,  most  descriptions  are  found  making  but  a  single 
paragraph. 

In  the  case  of  a  moving  point  of  view,  however,  the 
picture  observed  from  each  position  will  be  one  com- 
plete whole;  and,  unless  the  whole  description  is  to  be 
very  short,  each  separate  picture  demands  a  paragraph 
for  its  portrayal.  This  is  well  illustrated  in  the  Old 
Manse.  Whenever  the  point  of  view  is  changed  and  a 
new  picture  is  to  be  presented,  there  is  the  beginning  of 
a  new  paragraph. 


PARAGRAPHS  IN  DESCRIPTION  143 

The  topic  sentence.  In  narration  and  description, 
then,  a  group  of  sentences  treating  one  single  topic 
makes  a  paragraph.  The  topic  of  a  paragraph  is  often 
definitely  announced  in  a  single  sentence.  The  sentence 
that  sets  forth  the  topic  of  a  paragraph  is  called  the  topic 
sentence.  Because  the  writer  usually  wishes  a  reader  to 
know  at  once  what  the  paragraph  is  about,  the  topic 
sentence  generally  stands  at  or  near  the  beginning. 

1.  Mr.  Squeers's  appearance  was  not  prepossessing.  He  had 
but  one  eye,  and  the  popular  prejudice  runs  in  favour  of 
two.  The  eye  he  had  was  unquestionably  useful,  but  de- 
cidedly not  ornamental:  being  of  a  greenish-grey,  and  in 
shape  resembling  the  fan-light  of  a  street  door.  The  blank 
side  of  his  face  was  much  wrinkled  and  puckered  up,  which 
gave  him  a  very  sinister  appearance,  especially  when  he 
smiled,  at  which  times  his  expression  bordered  closely  on 
the  villainous.  His  hair  was  very  flat  and  shiny,  save  at 
the  ends,  where  it  was  brushed  stiffly  up  from  a  low  pro- 
truding forehead,  which  assorted  well  with  his  harsh 
voice  and  coarse  manner.  He  was  about  two  or  three  and 
fifty,  and  a  trifle  below  the  middle  size;  he  wore  a  white 
neckerchief  with  long  ends,  and  a  suit  of  scholastic  black; 
but  his  coat  sleeves  being  a  great  deal  too  long,  and  his 
trousers  a  great  deal  too  short,  he  appeared  ill  at  ease  in 
his  clothes,  and  as  if  he  were  in  a  perpetual  state  of  aston- 
ishment at  finding  himself  so  respectable.  —  Dickens. 

2.  The  picture  presented  to  his  eye  was  not  calculated  to  en- 
liven his  mind.  The  old  mansion  stood  out  against  the 
western  sky,  black  and  silent.  One  long,  lurid  pencil- 
stroke  along  a  sky  of  slate  was  all  that  was  left  of  day- 
light. No  sign  of  life  was  apparent;  no  light  at  any 
window,  unless  it  might  have  been  on  the  side  of  the 
house  hidden  from  view.  No  owls  were  on  the  chimneys, 
no  dogs  were  in  the  yard.  —  George  W.  Cable.^ 

3.  There  is  nothing  in  which  people  differ  more  than  in  their 
powers  of  observation.  Some  are  only  half  alive  to  what  is 
going  on  around  them.   Others,  again,  are  keenly  alive  : 

1  Olfi  Creole  Day  it,  by  George  W.  Cable.    Copyright,  1S79, 1881, 1883,  hv  Charles  Scribner'a 
Sons  ;  190",  by  George  W.  Cable.    By  permission  of  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


144  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

their  intelligence,  their  powers  of  recognition,  are  in  full 
force  in  eye  and  ear  at  all  times.  They  see  and  hear 
everything,  whether  it  directly  concerns  them  or  not. 
They  never  pass  unseen  a  familiar  face  in  the  street. 
They  are  never  oblivious  of  any  interesting  feature  or 
sound  or  object  in  the  earth  or  sky  about  them.  Their 
power  of  attention  is  always  on  the  alert,  not  by  conscious 
effort,  but  by  natural  habit  and  disposition.  Their  per- 
ceptive faculties  may  be  said  to  be  always  on  duty.  — 
John  Burroughs. 

4.  Your  latest  story  came  back,  perhaps,  this  morning,  ac- 
companied by  its  third  rejection  slip.  In  writing  that  stofy 
did  you  take  the  trouble  to  work  it  over  for  the  third  or 
fourth  time?  Did  you  erase  and  re-arrange  the  opening 
sentence  endlessly  until  you  knew  all  its  possible  varia- 
tions by  heart?  Did  you  wake  up  suddenly  in  the  night 
with  a  happy  idea  that  would  just  fit  into  page  seventeen 
and  could  not  wait  until  morning?  —  or  did  you,  on  the 
other  hand,  simply  sit  down  quite  comfortable  one  day, 
possessed  only  of  pen,  ink,  and  paper,  and  a  good  work- 
ing idea,  and  dash  off  your  five  thousand  words  at  top 
speed  while  the  heat  that  Thoreau  speaks  of  was  still  in 
you?  And,  as  you  signed  your  name,  did  you  say  to 
yourself,  "Well,  I  suppose  some  of  this  is  a  bit  ragged, 
but  it  will  have  to  go  as  it  is"?  If  the  second  is  the  case, 
then  your  collection  of  rejection  slips  deserves  to  multi- 
ply. You  may  be  a  geniiLSy  hut  you  are  not  a  craftsman.  — 
Frederic  Taber  Cooper. 

5.  It  is  of  little  use  for  me  to  tell  you  that  Hetty's  cheek  was 
like  a  rose  petal,  that  dimples  played  about  her  pouting 
lips,  that  her  large  dark  eyes  hid  a  soft  roguishness  under 
their  long  lashes,  and  that  her  curly  hair,  though  all 
gathered  back  under  her  round  cap  while  she  was  at 
work,  stole  back  in  dark  delicate  rings  on  her  forehead  and 
about  her  white,  shell-like  ears;  it  is  of  little  use  for  me  to 
say  how  lovely  was  the  contour  of  her  pink  and  white 
neckerchief  tucked  into  her  low,  plum-colored  stuff  bodice, 
or  how  the  linen  butter-making  apron,  with  its  bib,  seemed 
a  thing  to  be  imitated  in  silk  by  duchesses,  since  it  fell  in 
such  charming  lines,  or  how  her  brown  stockings  and 


PARAGRAPHS  IN  DESCRIPTION  145 

thick-soled,  buckled  shoes  lost  all  that  clumsiness  which 
they  must  certainly  have  had  when  empty  of  her  foot  and 
ankle;  —  of  little  use  unless  you  have  seen  a  woman  who 
affected  you  as  Hetty  affected  her  beholders;  for  otherwise, 
though  you  might  conjure  up  the  image  of  a  lovely  woman, 
she  would  not  in  the  least  resemble  that  distracting,  kitten- 
like maiden.  —  George  Eliot. 

Not  all  paragraphs  have  topic  sentences.  Narrative 
paragraphs  are  generally  without  them,  for  they  are  un- 
necessary in  a  story.  Descriptive  paragraphs,  if  short, 
are  frequently  without  them.  But  the  fact  that  some 
paragraphs  have  not  topic  sentences  does  not  mean  that 
a  paragraph  is  not  a  definite  treatment  of  a  single  topic. 
Whether  with  or  without  a  topic  sentence,  a  paragraph 
must  always  discuss  a  single  topic. 

Below  are  two  paragraphs,  one  narrative  and  the 
other  descriptive.  Neither  has  a  topic  sentence;  each 
surely  discusses  a  single  topic :  — 

1.  Jean  Valjean  wept  long.  He  shed  hot  tears,  he  wept 
bitterly,  with  more  weakness  than  a  woman,  with  more 
terror  than  a  child.  He  beheld  his  life,  and  it  seemed  to 
him  horrible;  his  soul,  and  it  seemed  to  him  frightful. 
There  was,  however,  a  softened  light  upon  that  life  and 
upon  that  soul.  It  seemed  to  him  that  he  was  looking 
upon  Satan  by  the  light  of  Paradise.  —  Victor  Hugo. 

2.  By  his  side,  in  white  flannel  shirt  and  trousers,  straw  hat, 
the  captain's  belt,  and  the  untanned  cricket  shoes  which 
all  the  eleven  wear,  sits  a  strapping  figure  near  six  feet 
high,  with  ruddy  tanned  face,  curly  brown  hair  and  a 
laughing,  dancing  eye.  He  is  leaning  forward  with  his 
elbows  resting  on  his  knees,  and  dandling  his  favourite 
bat,  with  which  he  has  made  thirty  or  forty  runs  to-day, 
in  his  strong,  brown  hands.  —  Thomas  Hughes. 

In  description,  there  are  three  common  ways  of  de- 
veloping a  topic  sentence  into  a  paragraph :  — 
The  paragraph  of  details.  First,  a  thing  may  be  de- 


146  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

scribed  by  enumerating  details  about  it.  This  is  the  com- 
monest way  of  teUing  how  an  object  looks.  And  it  is 
also  the  usual  method  of  telling  how  a  thing  happened. 
It  is,  then,  the  common  method  of  paragraph  develop- 
ment in  narration  and  description. 

Below  are  two  examples  of  paragraph  development  by 
the  enumeration  of  details :  — 

1.  Late  in  the  evening  the  other  soldiers  were  put  into  their 
box,  and  the  people  of  the  house  went  to  bed.  Now  was  the 
time  for  the  toys  to  play;  they  amused  themselves  with 
paying  visits,  fighting  battles,  and  giving  balls.  The  tin 
soldiers  rustled  about  in  their  box,  for  they  wanted  to  join 
the  games,  but  they  could  n't  get  the  lid  off.  The  nut-crack- 
ers turned  somersaults,  and  the  pencil  scribbled  nonsense 
on  the  slate.  There  was  such  a  noise  that  the  canary  woke 
up  and  joined  in,  but  his  remarks  were  in  verse.  The  only 
two  who  did  not  move  were  the  tin  soldier  and  the  little 
dancer.  She  stood  as  stiff  as  ever  on  tiptoe  with  her  arms 
spread  out;  he  was  equally  firm  on  his  one  leg,  and  he  did 
not  take  his  eyes  off  her  for  a  moment.  —  Hans  Christian 
Andersen. 

2.  Sometimes  upon  those  Carnival  nights,  she  arrays  her- 
self in  the  costume  of  the  Albanian  water-carriers;  and 
nothing,  one  would  think,  could  be  prettier  than  the  laced 
crimson  jacket,  and  the  strange  head-gear  with  its  trinkets, 
and  the  short  skirts  leaving  to  view  as  delicate  an  ankle 
as  could  be  found  in  Rome.  Upon  another  night,  she 
glides  into  my  little  parlor,  as  we  sit  by  the  blaze,  in  a 
close,  velvet  bodice,  and  with  a  Swiss  hat  caught  up  by  a 
looplet  of  silver,  and  adorned  by  a  full-blown  rose  —  no- 
thing, you  think,  could  be  prettier  than  this.  Again,  in 
one  of  her  girlish  freaks,  she  robes  herself  like  a  nun;  and 
with  the  heavy  black  serge  for  dress  and  the  funeral  veil, 
—  relieved  only  by  the  plain  white  ruflBe  of  her  cap,  — 
you  wish  she  were  always  a  nun.  But  the  wish  vanishes 
when  you  see  her  in  pure  white  muslin,  with  a  wreath  of 
orange-blossoms  about  her  forehead,  and  a  single  white 
rosebud  in  her  bosom.  —  Ik  Marvel. 


PARAGRAPHS  IN  DESCRIPTION  147 

The  paragraph  of  the  obverse.  Second,  an  object  may 
be  described  by  telling  what  it  is  noU  or  by  what  has 
been  termed  an  obverse  statement.  The  writer  tells  what 
is  not  perceived  in  the  object;  and  by  so  doing  makes  even 
more  emphatic  the  qualities  that  are  perceived.  Its 
value  dep>ends  upon  the  vivid  contrasts  it  suggests. 
Notice,  in  the  following,  how  the  reader  fancies  at  once  a 
young  man  carelessly  dressed,  in  sharp  contrast  with  the 
faultlessly  dressed  man  in  the  picture.  Curtis  is  describ- 
ing **  you"  as  you  enter  the  reception  room,  and  says:  — 

You  are  polished  and  cool,  and  have  an  irreproachable 
repose  of  manner.  There  are  no  improper  wrinkles  in  your 
cravat;  your  shirt  bosom  does  not  bulge;  the  trousers  are  ac- 
curate about  your  admirable  boot.  But  you  look  very  stiff 
and  brittle. 

This  slight  illustration  shows  the  order  in  which  the 
parts  of  such  a  description  are  generally  arranged.  First, 
there  is  a  direct  statement  of  what  the  appearance  of  the 
object  is;  next,  a  denial  of  what  the  appearance  might 
be,  but  what  it  is  not  in  reality;  and  last,  a  second  asser- 
tion of  what  the  appearance  is.  Sometimes  the  first 
direct  statement  is  omitted,  and  there  are  only  the  ob- 
verse and  the  direct  statement  in  sharp  contrast.  This 
method  of  obverse  statement  is  often  used  with  great 
effect.  Notice  the  vivid  pictures  drawn  by  this  method 
in  the  following  paragraphs:  — 

1.  The  room  in  which  the  rector  sat  was  not  large  —  nor 
was  it  like  the  usual  ministerial  study.  The  circular  walls 
'were  not  filled  with  books,  but  with  panes  of  clear  glass, 
through  which  the  light  came  with  even  glow.  There  was 
no  sign  of  where  the  light  came  from;  but  only  electricity 
could  have  given  the  white  unsheathed  light  that  filled 
the  room.  It  fell  on  the  man  seated  at  the  desk  and  touched 
the  few  and  simple  objects  in  the  room  with  clear  direct- 
ness. —  Jennette  Lee. 


148  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

In  the  following  by  Van  Dyke,  the  effect  of  each 
is  emphasized  by  teUing  what  is  not  to  be  heard,  or 
seen :  — 

2.  The  woods  are  glistening  as  fresh  and  fair  as  if  they  had 
been  new-created  overnight.  The  water  sparkles  with 
merriment,  and  tiny  waves  are  dancing  and  singing  all 
along  the  shore.  Scarlet  berries  of  the  mountain-ash  hang 
around  the  lake,  like  a  necklace  of  coral.  A  pair  of  king- 
fishers dart  back  and  forth  across  the  bay,  in  flashes  of 
living  blue.  A  black  eagle  swings  silently  around  his  circle, 
far  up  in  the  cloudless  sky.  The  air  is  full  of  pleasant 
sounds,  but  there  is  no  noise.  The  world  is  full  of  joyful 
life,  but  there  is  no  crowd  and  no  confusion.  There  is  no 
factory  chimney  to  darken  the  day  with  its  smoke,  no 
trolley-car  to  split  the  silence  with  its  shriek  and  smite 
the  indignant  ear  with  the  clanging  of  its  impudent  bell. 
No  lumberman's  axe  has  robbed  the  encircling  forests  of 
their  glory  of  great  trees.  No  fires  have  swept  over  the 
hills  and  left  behind  them  the  desolation  of  a  bristly  land- 
scape. All  is  fresh  and  sweet,  calm  and  clear  and  bright.' 

S.  But  when  we  turned  to  the  south  and  east,  how  wonderful 
and  how  different  was  the  view !  Here  was  no  wide-spread 
and  smiling  landscape  with  gleams  of  silver  scattered 
through  it,  and  soft  blue  haze  resting  upon  its  fading  verge, 
but  a  wild  land  of  mountains,  stern,  rugged,  tumultuous, 
rising  one  beyond  another  like  the  waves  of  a  stormy 
ocean,  —  Ossa  piled  upon  Pelion,  —  Mclntyre's  sharp 
peak,  and  the  ragged  crest  of  the  Gothics,  and,  above  all, 
Marcy's  dome-like  head,  raised  just  far  enough  above  the 
others  to  assert  his  royal  right  as  monarch  of  thcAdiron- 
dacks.  —  Henry  van  Dyke.^ 

EXERCISE 

1.  Describe  a  hovel  in  a  crowded  part  of  a  city;  or  one 
on  the  outskirts  of  a  village.  Do  this  first  by  the  ordinary 

1  Fish€rmnn''s  Luck,  by  Henry  van  Dyke    Copyright,  1899, 1905,  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
Bv  permission  of  the  Publishers.  _ 

2  Little  Rivers,  by  Henry  van  Dyke.    Copyright,  1895, 1903,  by  CharlcB  Scribner's  Sons,  By 
permission  of  the  Publishers. 


PARAGRAPHS  IN  DESCRIPTION  149 

method  of  details.  Then  describe  the  same  place  by 
means  of  the  obverse.  The  following  sentences  may 
help  you  to  get  started :  — 

After  the  game  I  followed  the  hero  to  his  home.  Imagine 
my  surprise  on  finding  that  the  home  of  this  unconquered 
champion  was  not  so  good  as  my  own.  It  had  not  even  the  or- 
dinary comforts  of  a  modern  house. 

Go  on  with  the  details  that  one  expects  to  find  in  a 
house  of  moderate  comfort.  Then  close  with  a  direct 
statement  of  what  you  really  saw.  This  is  really  two 
descriptions  set  in  contrast  to  heighten  the  effect.  Re- 
member that  you  are  outside  the  house. 

2.  Describe  a  person  by  contrasts. 

I  had  often  read  the  wise  and  beautiful  things had 

written;  and  I  had  fancied  just  how  he  must  look! 

Complete  your  fancied  picture  of  him;  then  follow  it 
with  the  description  of  the  real  man,  as  you  once  saw 
him. 

I  could  hardly  believe  my  eyes  when  I  saw  him  on  the  plat- 
form.   Instead  of ,  I  saw . 

The  paragraph  of  comparisons.  In  addition  to  the 
paragraph  of  details  and  the  paragraph  of  the  obverse, 
we  have  a  third  kind  of  paragraph  used  in  description. 
This  is  the  paragraph  of  comparisons.  An  object  may 
sometimes  be  most  easily  described  by  telling  what  it 
looks  like,  or  what  it  does  not  look  like.  It  would  be  im- 
possible to  give  a  clearer  picture  of  Ichabod  Crane  than 
Irving  has  presented  in  the  two  comparisons  in  the  fol- 
lowing paragraph :  — 

The  cognomen  of  Crane  was  not  inapplicable  to  his  person. 
He  was  tall,  but  exceedingly  lank,  with  narrow  shoulders,  long 
arms  and  legs,  hands  that  dangled  a  mile  out  of  his  sleeves. 


150  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

feet  that  might  have  served  for  shovels,  and  his  whole  frame 
most  loosely  hung  together.  His  head  was  small,  and  flat  at 
top,  with  huge  ears,  large  green  glassy  eyes,  and  a  long  snipe 
nose,  so  that  it  looked  like  a  weather-cock  perched  upon  his 
spindle  neck,  to  tell  which  way  the  wind  blew.  To  see  him  strid- 
ing along  the  profile  of  a  hill  on  a  windy  day,  with  his  clothes 
bagging  and  fluttering  about  him,  one  might  have  mistaken 
him  for  the  genius  of  famine  descending  upon  the  earth,  or 
some  scarecrow  eloped  from  a  cornfield. 

A  writer  who  uses  this  method  must  always  bear  in 
mind  the  fact  that,  in  constructing  a  mental  picture, 
each  person  does  it  with  the  images  he  already  has  in 
mind.  Suppose  that  a  pupil  in  California  were  asked 
to  describe  an  orange  to  an  Esquimau  child.  He  might 
say  that  an  orange  was  a  spheroid  (a  word  the  child 
had  never  heard),  about  the  size  of  an  apple  (a  fruit 
he  had  never  seen),  and  the  color  of  a  canvas  by  Turner 
(something  he  knew  nothing  about).  This  would  be 
entirely  worthless  to  a  child  of  the  frigid  zone.  Were  he 
told  that  an  orange  grew  on  a  tree,  was  about  the  size 
of  a  snowball,  much  the  color  of  the  flame  of  a  candle, 
that  the  outside  came  off  like  the  skin  of  a  seal,  and  that 
the  inside  was  good  to  eat,  he  would  have  a  much  better 
idea  of  this  fruit.  In  the  latter  case,  the  images  are  those 
familiar  to  the  Esquimau  child.  These  images  that  lie 
in  our  minds,  and  from  which  we  construct  new  pic- 
tures, are  much  like  the  blocks  that  a  child  builder  re- 
arranges in  many  different  forms;  but  the  blocks  them- 
selves do  not  change.  From  them  the  child  may  build 
a  castle  or  a  mill;  the  only  difference  is  the  difference  in 
the  arrangement.  A  reader  does  not  create  something 
new;  all  he  does  is  to  rearrange  in  his  own  mind  images 
already  familiar.  Only  in  this  way  does  he  pass  from 
the  thing  he  knows  to  the  new  thing  that  he  does  not 
know. 


FIGURES  OF  SPEECH  151 

The  fact  that  all  persons  construct  pictures  of  what 
they  read  from  the  images  already  in  their  minds  warns 
writers  and  speakers  against  using  images  that  their 
readers  cannot  easily  understand.  This  beautiful  line 
from  The  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,  "  quaint  arabesques 
of  ice-fern  leaf,"  suggests  to  many  a  person  no  picture 
at  all.  Yet  when  he  has  looked  up  the  words  in  a  dic- 
tionary, and  seen  there  the  picture  of  an  arabesque,  he 
appreciates  the  beauty  of  the  roof  beneath  which  the 
little  brook  could  house  itself,  winter-proof.  Common 
images,  definite  images,  are  the  ones  that  should  ordi- 
narily be  used  in  making  comparisons. 

EXERCISE 

Select  one  of  the  following  subjects  for  a  description. 
In  the  paragraph  make  use  of  one  or  more  compari- 
sons: — 

1.  One  day  I  saw  at  a  circus  a  prairie  wolf;  and  it  astonished 
me  to  see  how  much  he  looked  like  "Scottie." 

^.  How  much  a  leopard  resembles  a  cat!  [In  this  description, 
give  first  the  likenesses  and  then  the  diflFerences.  After 
this  has  been  worked  out  so  that  the  picture  is  clear,  close 
with  a  repetition  of  the  topic,  asserting  in  a  different  way 
the  marked  resemblance.] 

8.  Using  comparisons,  write  for  a  child  of  the  tropics  a 
description  of  a  coasting  "bob." 

4.  Describe  snow  to  a  native  of  Egypt. 

5.  Describe  glass  to  a  Fiji  Islander. 

6.  Describe  a  plow  to  a  city  boy;  or  a  churn  to  a  city  girl. 

7.  Describe  a  trolley-car  to  a  child  that  has  never  seen  one. 

8.  Describe  a  diamond  to  a  Greenlander. 

FIGURES  OF  SPEECH 

Comparisons  may  be  used  in  description  for  another 
purpose  than  to  present  a  picture;  often  they  are  used 
to  make  the  picture  more  vivid.    Irving  accomplishes 


152  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

both  ends  by  the  use  of  comparisons  in  his  sketch  of 
Ichabod.  We  know  from  the  first  phrases  how  Ichabod's 
head  looked;  but  when  we  read  the  words,  "  so  that  it 
looked  like  a  weather-cock  perched  upon  his  spindle 
neck,"  the  picture  is  most  vivid.  So  also,  when  Irving 
says  that  he  looked  like  **  some  scarecrow  eloped  from 
a  cornfield,"  he  has  heightened  the  effect  of  the  picture 
by  the  striking  comparison.  In  the  following  paragraph 
by  Holmes,  note  the  humorous  effect  produced  by  the 
unexpected  comparisons:  — 

I  have  just  been  to  hear  some  music-pounding.  It  was  a 
young  woman,  with  as  many  white  flounces  round  her  as  a 
planet  has  rings,  that  did  it.  She  gave  the  music-stool  a  twirl 
or  two,  and  fluffed  down  on  it  like  a  whirl  of  soap-suds  in  a 
hand-basin.  Then  she  pushed  up  her  cuffs  as  if  she  were  going 
to  fight  for  the  champion's  belt.  Then  she  worked  her  wrists 
and  her  hands,  to  limber  'em,  I  suppose,  and  spread  out  her 
fingers  till  they  looked  as  though  they  would  pretty  much 
cover  the  keyboard,  from  the  growly  end  to  the  little  squeaky 
one.  Then  those  two  hands  of  hers  made  a  jump  at  the  keys  as 
if  they  were  a  couple  of  tigers  coming  down  on  a  flock  of  black 
and  white  sheep,  and  the  piano  gave  a  great  howl,  as  if  its  tail 
had  been  trod  on. 

Lowell  was  filled  with  joy  by  the  arrival  of  the  dan- 
delions upon  his  lawn,  and  wrote,  — 
"Then  think  I  of  deep  shadows  on  the  grass, 

.  .  .  and  of  a  sky  above. 
Where  one  white  cloud  Hke  a  stray  lamb  doth  move.** 

Longfellow,  looking  up  into  the  wide  sky  at  night, 
saw  a  new  picture  there  and  wrote,  — 

"Silently,  one  by  one,  in  the  infinite  meadows  of  heaven 
Blossomed  the  lovely  stars." 

Lowell  did  not  mean  that  a  cloud  is  really  like  a 
stray  lamb;  only  this,  that  in  one  single  respect  a  fluffy 


FIGURES  OF  SPEECH  158 

cloud  is  like  a  soft  white  Iamb.  Nor  did  Longfellow 
believe  that  the  stars  are  really  flowers.  Yet  how  beau- 
tiful are  the  stars  when  we  think  of  them  as  flowers 
blossoming  in  the  infinite  meadows  of  heaven!  Such  a 
use  of  language  is  called  figurative;  and  such  compari- 
sons are  called  figures  of  speech. 

Most  of  the  common  figures  of  speech  are  based  upon 
comparison.  Yet  the  objects  compared  must  not  be 
really  alike,  else  there  will  be  no  figure  of  speech.  It  is 
not  a  figure  of  speech  to  say  that  a  wolf  is  like  a  dog. 
That  is  a  real  resemblance.  But  to  say  that  *'  The  As- 
syrian came  down  like  a  wolf  on  the  fold  "  is  a  figure  of 
speech.  Here  objects  that  are  essentially  unlike,  the 
Assyrian  soldier  and  the  wolf,  have  one  quality  that  is 
like.  Their  resemblance  in  this  one  point  is  asserted; 
and  that  assertion  is  a  figure  of  speech. 

The  two  most  common  figures  of  speech  are  simile  and 
metaphor. 

A  simile  is  an  expressed  comparison  between  objects  es- 
sentially different,  but  having  some  common  quality. 

This  likeness  is  usually  expressed  by  the  word  like  or 
as. 

A  metaphor  is  an  implied  comparison  between  objects  es- 
sentially different,  but  having  some  common  quality. 

In  a  metaphor  there  is  no  word  used  to  express  the  com- 
parison. 

EXERCISE 

The  first  paragraph  below  is  a  very  simple  compari- 
son. It  would  be  well  to  analyze  it  and  note  the  num- 
ber of  likenesses  that  are  mentioned.  After  you  have 
studied  this  paragraph,  select  one  from  the  subjects 
that  follow  it,  and  write  a  description  by  the  use  of 


154  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

comparisons.      You  will  undoubtedly  use  figures  of 
speech. 

I  looked  into  our  brooder  and  saw  the  many-colored,  vel- 
vety chicks.  There  were  tiny  yellow  ones  with  brown  splotches, 
and  plain  yellow  ones;  there  were  sturdy  white  fellows,  and 
black  and  brown.  I  was  reminded  at  once  of  my  blooming 
pansy  bed;  the  softness  and  rich  color  were  all  there.  And  I 
had  only  to  half  shut  my  eyes,  and  I  could  imagine  that  the 
pansies  had  suddenly  been  given  the  power  of  motion  and  the 
gift  of  speech. 

1.  How  changeable  that  April  day  was!  The  sun  rose  dimly 
behind  a  bank  of  threatening  clouds;  but  the  clouds  soon 
vanished  and  there  was  clear,  golden  sunshine  everywhere. 
Then,  as  if  by  magic,  there  were  clouds  again,  and  a  sudden 
splash  of  rain;  more  sunshine  and  then  more  rain,  until 
we  did  n't  know  what  to  expect  next.  Just  like  that  April 
day  are  the  moods  of  our  baby.  When  he  first  awakes, 
he  .  .  . 

a.  sunshine smiles. 

b.  clouds frowns,   pouting  face. 

c.  rain tears. 

d.  rainbow  ^ laughter,  joy,  etc.,  as  you  think  of  like- 

nesses. 

2.  The  flowers  in  our  garden  are  like  so  many  people. 

a.  The  roses 

b.  The  lilies 

c.  The  violets 

d.  The  sunflowers 


The  great  waves  came  beating  upon  the  shore  like  the 
steady  tramp  of  soldiers. 

a.  The  parallel  lines  of  oncoming  billows 

b.  The  regular  beat  and  break  upon  the  shore 

c.  The  receding  waves 

A  robin's  nest  filled  with  young  ones  is  like  a  home  I  know, 
o.  The  cozy  warm  nest 

b.  The  hungry,  clamoring  brood 

c.  The  attentive,  watchful  old  birds 

d.  The  fledglings  leave  the  nest 


WORDS  IN  DESCRIPTION  155 

WORDS  IN  DESCRIPTION 

Nouns  and  adjectives.  The  words  that  may  most 
justly  be  called  describing  words  are  adjectives  and 
nouns;  and,  of  these,  adjectives  are  the  words  most  used 
in  description.  The  rule  that  a  wi-iter  should  never  use 
two  adjectives  where  one  will  do,  and  that  he  should 
use  not  even  one  if  a  noun  can  be  found  that  com- 
pletely expresses  the  thought,  is  a  good  one  to  follow. 
In  sketching,  one  certain  stroke  of  the  crayon  is  worth 
a  hundred  lines,  each  approaching  the  right  one.  In 
describing,  one  word,  the  only  one,  will  tell  the  truth 
more  vividly  than  ten  that  approach  its  significance. 
For  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  description  must  be 
done  quickly;  every  word  that  is  used  and  does  nothing 
is  not  only  a  waste  of  time,  but  is  actually  in  the  way. 
In  a  description  every  word  must  count.  The  picture 
may  be  brought  out  by  comparison,  epithet,  personifica- 
tion, or  what  not;  but  whatever  the  method,  the  right 
word  must  do  its  part,  and  do  it  quickly. 

How  much  depends  on  a  nice  choice  of  words  may  be 
seen  by  a  study  of  the  selections  already  quoted;  and 
especially  by  a  careful  reading  of  those  by  Stevensoa 
and  Everett  (pages  135  and  136).  To  show  the  use 
of  adjectives  and  nouns  in  description,  the  following 
from  Dickens  is  a  good  illustration:  — 

Hunger  was  pushed  out  of  the  tall  houses  in  the  wretched 
clothing  that  hung  upon  poles  and  lines;  Hunger  was  patched 
into  them  with  straw  and  rag  and  wood  and  paper;  Hunger 
was  repeated  in  every  fragment  of  the  small  modicum  of  fire- 
wood that  the  man  sawed  off;  Hunger  stared  down  from  the 
smokeless  chimneys,  and  stared  up  from  the  filthy  street  that 
had  no  offal,  among  its  refuse,  of  anything  to  eat.  Hunger  was 
the  inscription  on  the  baker's  shelves,  written  in  every  small 
loaf  of  his  scanty  stock  of  bad  bread;  at  the  sausage-shop,  in 
every  dead-dog  preparation  that  was  offered  for  sale.  Hunger 


156  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

rattled  its  dry  bones  among  the  roasting  chestnuts  in  the 
turned  cylinder;  Hunger  was  shred  into  atomies  in  every 
farthing  porringer  of  husky  chips  of  potato  fried  with  some 
reluctant  drops  of  oil. 

One  third  of  the  words  in  this  paragraph  are  descriptive 
nouns  and  adjectives,  none  of  which  we  wish  to  change. 

Verbs.  Verbs  also  have  great  value  in  description. 
In  the  paragraph  picturing  the  dawn,  Stevenson  has  not 
neglected  the  verbs;  "  welled,"  **  whitened,"  "  trem- 
bled," *'  brightened,"  **  warmed,"  **  kindled,"  and  so 
on  through  the  paragraph.  Try  to  change  them,  and 
it  is  apparent  that  something  is  lost  by  any  substi- 
tution. Kaa,  the  python,  **  pours  himself  along  the 
ground."  If  he  is  angry,  *'  Baloo  and  Bagheera  could 
see  the  big  swallowing-muscles  on  either  side  of  Kaa*s 
throat  ripple  and  bulge.''* 

What  makes  a  **  nice  choice."  Yet,  in  the  choice  of 
words,  one  may  search  for  the  unusual  rather  than  for 
the  truly  picturesque.  Stevenson  at  times  seems  to 
have  done  this.  When  he  says  that  Modestine  would 
feel  a  switch  "  more  tenderly  than  my  cane  ";  that  he 
"  must  instantly  maltreat  this  uncomplaining  animal," 
meaning  constantly;  and  at  another  place  that  he  **  had 
to  labor  so  consistently  with  "  his  stick  that  the  sweat 
ran  into  his  eyes,  there  is  a  suspicion  of  a  desire  for  the 
sensational  rather  than  the  direct  truth.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  beginner  finds  himself  using  words  that  have 
lost  their  meaning  through  indiscriminate  usage.  "Aw- 
ful good,"  "  awful  pretty,"  and  "  awful  sweet  "  mean 
something  less  than  good,  pretty,  and  sweet.  "  Lovely," 
"  dear,"  "  splendid,"  "  unique,"  and  a  large  number  of 
good  words  have  been  much  dulled  by  the  ignorant 
use  of  babblers.  Superlatives,  and  all  words  denoting 
comparison,  should  be  used  with  stinginess.    One  can- 


WORDS  EST  DESCRIPTION  157 

not  afford  to  part  with  this  kind  of  coin  frequently; 
the  cheaper  coins  should  be  used,  else  he  will  find  an 
empty  purse  when  need  arises.  Thackeray  has  this: 
**  Her  voice  was  the  sweetest,  low  song."  How  much 
better  this:  Her  voice  was  a  sweet,  low  song.  All  the 
rest  of  the  world  is  shut  out  from  this,  while  in  the  former 
the  rest  of  the  world  is  challenged  by  the  comparison. 
Shakespeare  was  wiser  when  he  made  Lear  say,  — 

"Her  voice  was  ever  soft. 
Gentle,  and  low,  —  an  excellent  thing  in  woman." 

Avoid  words  that  have  lost  their  meaning  by  indis- 
criminate use;  shun  the  sensational  and  the  bizarre; 
but  in  all  your  expressions,  whether  in  unadorned  or 
in  figurative  language,  choose  the  word  that  is  quick 
and  sure  and  vivid  —  the  one  word  that  exactly  sug- 
gests the  picture. 

EXERCISE 

1.  For  the  first  exercise  in  the  careful  choice  of  words, 
select  the  three  descriptions  that  you  consider  the  best 
that  you  have  written,  and  make  a  special  study  of 
them.  Replace  all  the  words  that  seem  to  you  not  to 
say  just  what  you  wanted  to  say,  by  words  that  are 
accurate  and  full  of  picturing  power.  Possibly  you  will 
make  some  additions  to  these  descriptions,  not  so  much 
increasing  the  number  of  details  as  emphasizing  those 
already  chosen. 

2.  Below  is  a  description  of  Gallegher  written  by  a 
master  of  English.  This  good  and  simple  description  is 
followed  by  another  in  which  the  aim  has  been  to  use 
exactly  the  same  details,  but  to  make  the  characteris* 
tics  entirely  contrary  to  the  first.  To  do  this  requires 
a  careful  choice  of  words.  After  you  have  studied  this 


159  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

carefully,  write  a  second  paragraph  about  the  boys  in 
the  stage-coach,  changing  the  central  idea  and  giving 
especial  attention  to  substitutes  for  the  words  in 
italics. 

la.  Gallegher  was  something  diflFerent  from  anything  we  had 
experienced  before.  Gallegher  was  short  and  broad  in 
build,  with  a  solid,  muscular  broadness,  and  not  a  fat  and 
dumpy  shortness.  He  wore  perpetually  on  his  face  a 
happy  and  knowing  smile,  as  if  you  and  the  world  in 
general  were  not  impressing  him  as  seriously  as  you  thought 
you  were,  and  his  eyes,  which  were  very  black  and  very 
bright,  snapped  intelligently  at  you  like  those  of  a  little 
black  and  tan  terrier. 

16.  Gallegher  was  something  different  from  anything  we  had 
experienced  before.  Gallegher  was  tall  and  thin  in  build, 
with  a  lean,  hungry  thinness,  and  not  a  strong,  well-de- 
veloped tallness.  He  wore  perpetually  on  his  face  an  ugly 
and  foolish  sneer,  as  if  you  and  the  world  in  general  were 
not  impressing  him  as  seriously  as  you  thought  you  were, 
and  his  eyes,  which  were  very  colorless  and  very  dull, 
stared  vacantly  at  you  like  those  of  a  stuflFed  ape  in  a 
museum. 

2a.  In  the  course  of  a  December  tour  in  Yorkshire,  I  rode 
for  a  long  distance  in  one  of  the  public  coaches  on  the 
day  preceding  Christmas.  I  had  three  fine  rosy-cheeked 
school-boys  for  my  fellow-passengers  inside,  full  of  huxom 
health  and  manly  spirity  which  I  have  observed  in  the 
children  of  this  country.  They  were  returning  home  for 
the  holidays  in  high  glee,  and  promising  themselves  a 
world  of  enjoyment.  It  was  delightful  to  hear  the  gigantic 
plans  of  the  little  rogues,  and  the  impracticable  feats  they 
were  to  perform  during  their  six  weeks'  emancipation 
from  the  abhorred  thraldom  of  book,  birch,  and  pedagogue. 
They  were  full  of  anticipation  of  the  meeting  with  the 
family  and  household,  down  to  the  very  cat  and  dog,  and 
of  the  joy  they  were  to  give  their  little  sisters  by  the  pre- 
sents with  which  their  pockets  were  crammed;  but  the 
meeting  to  which  they  looked  forward  with  the  greatest 
impatience  was  with  Bantam,  which  I  found  to  be  a  pony. 


WORDS  IN  DESCRIPTION  159 

and,  according  to  their  talk,  possessed  of  more  virtues  than 
any  steed  since  the  days  of  Bucephalus.  How  he  covld 
trot!  how  he  could  run!  and  then  such  leaps  as  he  would 
take !  —  there  was  not  a  hedge  in  the  whole  country  that 
he  could  not  clear. 

Changing  the  central  thought:  — 

26.  I  had  three  rough,  boisterous  school-boys  for  my  fellow- 
passengers  inside,  full  of  the  daring  impudence  and  mean 
lawlessness  which  I  have  observed  in  the  children  of  this 
country.  [Finish.] 

3.  Complete  either  of  the  next  two  paragraphs.  Make 
the  contrast  between  the  two  pictures  very  marked. 

1.  Last  June  my  straw  hat  was  new.  How  fresh  and  dainty 
it  looked!  The  crisp  ribbon-bows  sat  up  with  a  pretty 
perkiness,  as  if  they  knew  they  were  worth  looking  at. 
The  roses  glowed  a  soft  pink  against  their  delicate,  green 
leaves  and  tender  little  tufts  of  chiffon.  That  hat  was  a 
thing  of  beauty,  the  delight  of  my  heart.  One  day  I  was 
caught  in  a  rain-shower  with  it  on,  and  then  —  what  a 
change !  No  longer  was  it 

2.  My  brother,  Tom,  presents  a  business-like  appearance 
when  he  is  writing  a  letter.  He  sprawls  bent  over  the  work 
at  a  small  table  in  the  library.  His  feet  are  planted  squarely 
upon  the  floor,  his  rumpled  hair  stands  on  end,  and  his 
tongue  wanders  about,  keeping  motion  with  the  strokes 
of  the  pen.  Writing  a  letter  is  no  easy  task  for  Brother 
Tom;  it  is  the  intention  of  weeks, — yes,  of  months,  put 
into  execution.  He  writes  laboriously  for  a  line  or  two, 
and  then,  with  pen  aloft,  surveys  his  effort  with  a  criti- 
cal eye.  The  lines  on  his  forehead  show  that  he  is  in  deep 
thought.  But  an  hour  later,  when  the  letter  is  finished 
and  Tom  hears  the  whistle  outside  reminding  him  of  the 
practice-game,  he  is  quite  another  boy.   There  are  no 

4.  Now  choose  one  of  the  subjects  in  this  list,  and 
write  both  descriptions.  Remember  that  the  success  of 


160  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

these  exercises  will  depend  almost  entirely  upon  your 
discriminating  choice  of  words.  See  the  picture  clearly, 
then  find  the  one  word  that  says  just  what  you  see/ 

1.  Our  dog  told  not  to  follow. Our  dog  told  he  can  go. 

2.  Our  last   days  at  Grammar  School. Our  first  days 

at  High  School. 

3.  Wearing  short  trousers. Wearing  long  trousers. 

4.  I  had  lost  my  temper. I  try  to  make  amends. 

5.  The  elm-tree  in  summer. The  elm-tree  in  winter. 

6.  I  start  neat  and  clean  to  school. 1  trip  and  fall. 

5.  Below  is  given  a  list  of  supplementary  subjects 
for  description.  They  are  good  as  suggestions.  There  are 
no  subjects  so  good  as  the  things  that  are  right  at  home. 
In  fact,  to  do  well  the  thing  that  all  are  acquainted  with 
displays  true  skill.  Try  to  give  to  common  things  a  dis- 
tinction that  makes  them  unusual.  Do  not  attempt  a 
thing  you  have  not  seen. 

1.  The  Departure  of  an  Ocean  Liner. 

2.  The  Arrival  of  an  Ocean  Liner. 

3.  Six  A.M.  at  the  Market. 

4.  My  College  Brother's  Room. 

5.  Young  Lambs  at  Play. 

6.  A  Country  Dance. 

7.  The  Dog  Fight. 

8.  Fifteen  Minutes  at  the  "Quick  Lunch." 

9.  The  County  Fair  at . 

10.  Digging  for  Clams. 

11.  The  Schoolhouse  in  Vacation. 

12.  Our  Calf. 

13.  Mv  Favorite  Walk. 

14.  The  Old  Well. 

15.  A  Town  That  Has  Kept  Its  Individuality  since  Colonial 
Days. 

16.  Canoeing  on  the . 

17.  ,  the  Pet  of  the  Engine  House  [applicable  to  a  horse, 

a  dog,  or  a  cat]. 

18.  The  New  Skates. 


WOBDS  IN  DESCRIPTION  161 

19.  My  Baby  Photograph. 

20.  Lunch-time  at  School. 

21.  The  Oyster  Fleet. 

22.  The  City  Street  after  a  Rain. 

23.  In  Front  of  the  Village  Tavern. 

24.  From  the  Fifth  Story  of  a  Burning  Building. 

25.  Giving  Baby  His  Bath. 

26.  That  Pup. 

27.  Some  People  to  Meet. 

28.  Smoke-clouds  over  a  City. 

29.  The  Lake  in  a  Storm. 

30.  The  Launching  of  the  Battleship. 

31.  My  Friend,  the  Longshoreman. 

32.  Helping  Auntie  Unpack  Her  Paris  Trunk. 

33.  My  First  Pocketknife. 

34.  The  Woods  in  Winter. 

35.  The  Interior  of  a  Blacksmith's  Shop. 

36.  Birds  I  Know. 

37.  Watching  the  Immigrants  Land. 

38.  Quarantined  in  a  Side  Street  [applicable  to  a  congested 
district  in  a  large  city]. 

39.  Gathering  Apples  in  Autumn. 

40.  How  I  Feel  when  [choose  one  of  the  following] :  — 

(1)  Passing  that  dark  alley. 

(2)  Going  through  the  woods  alone  at  night. 

(3)  Getting  my  hair  cut. 

(4)  Taking  a  cold  bath. 

(5)  Wearing  a  new  garment  to  school. 

(6)  Hearing  the  fire-engines  go  by  at  night. 

(7)  First  going  barefooted  in  the  spring. 

(8)  Mother  says,  "Company  for  dinner,  and  you  must 
wait." 

(9)  Getting  up  early  to  go  fishing. 

(10)  Making  a  speech  in  public. 

(11)  An  unexpected  vacation  is  announced. 

(12)  Hearing  a  ghost  story. 

(13)  My  favorite  cousin  surprises  me  with  a  visit. 

(14)  I  come  home  from  school  and  find  Mother  and  every 
one  else  gone. 

(15)  I  first  sit  down  to  our  Christmas  dinner. 


CHAPTER  IV 

LETTER-WRITING 
PARTS  OF  A  LETTER 

The  most  common  use  made  of  written  language  is  in 
correspondence.  Everybody  in  these  days  writes  let- 
ters: some  business,  some  society,  some  friendly.  In 
no  other  kind  of  composition  do  conventional  forms 
play  so  great  a  part.  No  one  can  be  considered  educated 
unless  he  knows  the  conventional  forms  of  letter- writing, 
and  has  acquired  the  habit  of  using  them  correctly. 
These  forms  are  not  senseless;  every  one  of  them  has  a 
reason. 

All  letters  should  contain  six  parts:  — 

1.  The  Heading. 

2.  The  Address. 
S.  The  Salutation. 

4.  The  Body. 

5.  The  CompHmentary  Close. 

6.  The  Signature. 

The  Heading.  The  Heading  contains  the  name  of 
the  place  at  which  the  letter  is  written,  and  the  date  on 
which  it  is  written.  It  is  a  necessary  part  of  a  letter  be- 
cause it  informs  the  reader  where  the  writer  was  at  the 
time  of  writing,  and  especially  important  because  it 
tells  the  reader  where  to  address  his  reply.  In  case  the 
letter  should  go  astray,  it  gives  the  necessary  data  by 
which  the  letter  might  be  returned  from  the  Dead 
Letter  Office  to  the  writer.  When  we  know  that  14,000 
pieces  of  mail  matter,  worth  $30,000,  go  astray  every 
day  because  of  insufficient  address,  we  realize  how  nee- 


PARTS  OF  A  LETTER  163 

essary  it  is  that  every  letter  contain  the  address  to  which 
it  may  be  returned. 

The  Heading  is  placed  in  the  upper  right-hand  corner 
of  the  sheet  of  paper,  about  an  inch  and  a  half  from  the 
top  of  the  page.  The  first  line  begins  about  the  middle 
of  the  page,  and  each  line  following  begins  a  little  to  the 
right  of  the  one  above  it.  The  first  line  of  the  Heading 
contains  the  names  of  the  city  and  the  state,  and  the 
second  line  contains  the  date.  If  the  place  is  large  enough 
to  have  a  free  delivery,  then  the  first  line  contains  the 
street  number,  the  second  the  city  and  state,  and  the 
third  the  date.  Sometimes  the  town  is  so  small  that 
it  is  advisable  to  include  the  county;  if  so,  the  place  is 
generally  named  in  the  first  line,  the  county  and  the 
state  in  the  second,  and  the  date  in  the  third.  In  the 
case  of  printed  letter  heads,  only  the  date  needs  to  be 
written,  all  the  other  information  being  given  in  the 
printed  matter.  The  parts  of  the  Heading  are  separated 
from  one  another  by  commas;  and  all  a,bbreviations  are 
followed  by  periods.  For  the  placing  and  punctuation 
of  the  Heading,  see  the  form  on  page  166. 

The  Address.  The  Address  contains  the  name  and 
the  address  of  the  person  to  whom  the  letter  is  written. 
This  makes  it  possible  for  the  Dead  Letter  OflSce  to 
forward  a  letter  if  the  superscription  on  the  envelope 
should  be  omitted  or  incorrect.  The  Address  is  written 
at  the  left  of  the  sheet,  beginning  one  line  lower  than 
the  last  line  of  the  Heading.  The  arrangement  of  lines 
is  the  same  as  the  arrangement  of  the  Heading,  and 
the  punctuation  follows  the  same  rule. 

For  all  letters  that  are  official  in  character,  and  for 
society  correspondence,  the  Address  appears  in  the 
lower  left-hand  corner  of  the  last  page.  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  matter  is  the  same  in  either  case. 


164  LETTER-WRITING 

In  addressing  persons  that  have  titles,  such  as  Rev., 
Hon.,  or  Dr.,  but  one  title  should  be  used.  One  should 
not  write  "  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  M.D.,'*  or  "  Rev.  Amos 
Barton,  D.D.'*  Neither  should  one  write  "  Mr.  David 
L.  Kiehle,  D.  D."  It  is  becoming  common  in  America  to 
follow  the  English  custom  of  using  the  title  Esquire  in 
addressing  any  person  of  importance  in  a  community. 
When  this  title  is  used,  no  title,  not  even  Mr.,  should 
precfede  the  name. 

The  Salutation.  The  Salutation  begins  at  the  left- 
hand  side  of  the  page,  directly  below  the  Address.  The 
words  used  in  the  Salutation  vary  with  the  relations 
existing  between  the  correspondents.  If  the  letter  is 
addressed  to  some  person  in  authority,  the  Salutation 
is  simply  Sir.  In  business  it  may  be  simply  Sir,  but 
most  people  write  Dear  Sir  or  My  dear  Sir.  In  case  of 
a  firm  name,  the  Salutation  is  always  Gentlemen.  In 
friendly  correspondence.  My  dear  Sir  is  often  used; 
but  if  the  relation  between  the  correspondents  is  cordial, 
it  is  better  to  write  My  dear  Mr.  James,  or  Dear  Mr. 
James.  For  ladies,  whether  married  or  unmarried,  the 
Salutation  is  Madam,  Dear  Madam,  or  My  dear  Madam. 
In  addressing  a  firm  composed  of  women,  the  address 
is  Mesdames.  In  a  letter  of  friendship.  My  dear  Mrs. 
James  is  correct. 

The  punctuation  of  the  Salutation  varies.  The  colon, 
or  the  colon  and  dash,  is  used  in  formal  and  official  cor- 
respondence; while  the  comma,  or  the  comma  and  dash, 
is  used  in  friendly  letters  and  very  informal  notes.  Never 
use  a  semicolon;  never  use  a  dash  alone.  In  a  Saluta- 
tion, the  first  word  and  the  title  and  the  name  of  the  per- 
son addressed  begin  with  capital  letters;  no  other  words 
do.  If  **  dear  "  is  not  the  first  word  of  the  Salutation,  it 
should  never  be  capitalized.  "  My  Dear  Sir  "  is  wrong. 


PARTS  OF  A  LETTER  165 

The  Body  of  a  letter  contains  the  message.  It  will 
be  discussed  later. 

The  Complimentary  Close.  The  Complimentary 
Close  is  the  formal  ending  of  a  letter;  as.  Yours  truly , 
or  Sincerely  yours.  This  ending,  like  the  Salutation, 
varies  as  the  relation  between  the  correspondents 
varies.  In  closing  a  letter  to  a  high  official,  the  language 
should  be  dignified;  as,  /  have  the  honor  to  be 

YourSy  with  great  respect  (or  Yours  respectfully). 
The  common  business  phrase  is  Yours  truly  or  Very 
truly  yours;  while  for  close  friendship  the  ending  is 
usually  Cordially  yours y  or  Sincerely  yours.  There  must 
be  harmony  between  the  Salutation  and  the  Compli- 
mentary Close.  A  formal  Salutation  cannot  be  followed 
by  a  very  friendly  Complimentary  Close.  The  tone 
established  by  the  Salutation  must  be  maintained  to 
the  end  of  the  letter. 

Moreover,  no  matter  how  intimate  the  relation  exist- 
ing between  the  correspondents,  no  person  should  ever 
allow  himself  to  use  abbreviations  in  either  the  Saluta- 
tion or  the  Close.  "  Gents  "  for  Gentlemen  is  in  vulgar 
taste;  and  "  Yours,  etc.,  etc.,"  or  "  Yours  "  alone  is 
the  work  of  one  who  thinks  that  impolite  brevity  in- 
dicates the  pressing  nature  of  his  own  personal  affairs. 

The  Complimentary  Close  should  be  grammatically 
correct.  To  write  /  am 

Yours  truly, 
is  correct;  but  to  write  "  That  the  new  conditions  may 
bring  good  to  your  family  is  the  wish  of 

Yours  truly," 
is  incorrect.  Yours  truly  cannot  be  the  object  of  a 
preposition.  Know  the  whole  sentence  for  which  the 
Complimentary  Close  stands;  then  make  no  mistake 
in  grammar. 


166  LETTER-WRITING 

The  Signature.  The  Signature  should  be  written  very 
plainly,  and  should  be  written  in  the  way  in  which  a 
man  usually  signs  his  name:  either  his  surname  with  the 
initials  of  his  given  names,  or  his  surname  with  one  of 
his  given  names  and  the  initial  of  the  other,  or  his  name 
in  full.  While  it  is  right  that  the  whole  of  a  letter  should 
be  as  legible  as  the  writer  can  make  it,  in  many  cases  it 
is  possible  to  make  out  a  poorly  written  word  by  the 
rest  of  the  sentence  in  which  it  stands.  But  this  is  not 
true  of  a  signature;  there  is  no  clue  by  which  it  can  be 
determined.   It  must  stand  alone.   Make  it  plain. 

Below  is  the  form  of  letter  usually  adopted  by  letter- 
writers  :  — 

{Heading)     638  Humboldt  Avenue, 

Bangor,  Maine, 
June  16,  1911. 
Messrs.  Williams  and  Stokes, 
400  Cedar  Street, 

New  York  City.     (Address) 
Gentlemen:     {Salutation) 

{Body  of  the  letter) 

Respectfully  yours,    {Complimentary  Close) 

(Miss)  Ellen  Kimball.        {Signature) 

EXERCISE 

1.  There  are  ten  headings,  ten  addresses,  and  ten 
salutations  in  the  following.  Select  them  as  you  think 
suitable,  and  write  them  in  the  proper  form  for  opening 
a  letter,  including  the  proper  date. 

Onawa  Anoka  Co.  Minn.  1434  A  Street  Washington  D.  C. 
4568  Fifth  Avenue  New  York  City  839  Carnegie  Hall  New 
York  City  628  South  Wabash  Avenue  Chicago  HI.  Antlers 
Hotel  Colorado  Springs  Colo.  Pontchartrain  Road  New  Or- 
leans La.  417  St.  Germain  Street  St.  Cloud  Minn.  456  Cres- 


BUSINESS  LETTERS  167 

cent  Avenue  Waltham  Mass.  613  JeflFerson  Avenue  Rich- 
mond Va. 

James  A.  Smith  Superintendent  of  Schools  Jamestown 
N.  Dak.  Miss  Rebecca  Van  Cleve  Tripoli  Syria.  Wanous 
and  Vrooman  (firm  of  ladies)  19  Sixth  Street  Minneapolis 
Minn.  Mrs.  James  A.  Tawney  Hotel  Westminster  Boston 
Mass.  Deere  and  Webber  Moline  111.  Hon.  Julius  A  Rosen- 
wald  1678  Washington  Avenue  Helena  Mont.  Union  Elec- 
tric Co.  Seattle  Wash.  Mrs.  Charles  A.  Lamb  Profile  House 
N.  H.  Col.  William  H.  Prescott  Cliff  House  Manitou  Colo. 
Mr.  Dow  H.  Smith  624  Hillside  Drive  Spokane  Mont. 

Sirs  Dear  Sirs  My  dear  Rebecca  Sir  Mesdames  My  dear 
Dow  Madam  My  dear  Mrs.  Lamb  Dear  Sir  My  dear  Colonel. 

2.  Write  a  heading,  an  address,  a  salutation,  and  a 
complimentary  close  for  a  letter  to  each  of  the  following 
persons.   It  will  require  accurate  knowledge  to  do  this. 

1.  The  President  of  the  United  States. 

2.  The  Congressman  from  your  district. 

3.  The  Postmaster  General. 

4.  The  Governor  of  the  State. 

5.  The  Sheriff  of  your  county. 

6.  The  Clerk  of  the  town  or  city  in  which  you  live. 

7.  The  person  in  charge  of  the  church  you  attend. 

8.  Your  physician. 

9.  The  principal  of  your  school. 
10.  A  dear  friend. 


BUSINESS  LETTERS 

Letters  are  written  for  many  reasons;  but,  for  the 
purposes  of  this  discussion,  they  will  be  divided  into 
three  groups:  business  letters,  society  letters  and  notes, 
and  friendly  letters. 

For  whatever  purpose  a  letter  is  written,  it  should  be 
in  accord  with  the  following  general  rules:  First,  the 
paper  should  be  white  or  cream;  brilliant  hues  with 
loud  decorations  indicate  lack  of  refinement.    Second, 


168  LETTER-WRITING 

the  penmanship  should  be  the  best  the  writer  is  capable 
of.  Careless  penmanship  in  any  person  is  inexcusable. 
To  scribble  and  scrawl  shows  no  consideration  for  the 
reader,  and  common  courtesy  demands  that  the  labor 
of  others  shall  not  be  increased  by  any  act  of  ours. 
Third,  the  conventions  of  good  letter-writing  should 
be  followed  with  precise  obedience.  Fourth,  the  spelling 
should  be  faultless,  and  the  language  correct.  Fifth, 
courtesy  should  be  manifest  in  every  part  of  a  letter 
from  the  heading  to  the  signature;  and  nothing  should 
be  put  into  a  letter  that  could  bring  dishonor  to  the 
writer,  even  if  it  were  published. 

All  letters  should  be  well  expressed;  the  use  of  sole- 
cisms is  a  fault  not  easily  overlooked.  Furthermore, 
inelegant  expressions  never  appear  in  the  correspond- 
ence of  ladies  and  gentlemen.  We  may  expect  that  the 
woman  who  chews  gum  in  a  street-car  will  remark 
in  her  letter,  "  I  take  my  pen  in  hand  to  say  that  I  am 
well  and  hope  that  this  will  find  you  the  same  ";  and 
will  finally  report  the  impressive  fact  that  "  the  mail 
is  going  now  "  and  "  I  must  close."  Avoid  cheap  and 
much-used  phrases. 

In  commercial  correspondence  there  is  a  tendency 
to  consider  the  conventions  of  less  importance  than  in 
official  or  society  letters.  Some  business  men  act  as 
though  there  were  not  time  enough  in  the  day  to  get  a 
sufficient  number  of  dollars  and  at  the  same  time  be 
gentlemen.  They  would  defend  their  lapses  from  good 
breeding  by  the  worn-out  excuse,  "  want  of  time." 
However,  the  up-to-date  business  man  always  has  time 
to  be  a  gentleman,  and  no  stenographer  that  does  not 
know  the  graces  of  letter-writing  can  remain  in  his  office. 
In  business,  no  less  than  in  the  society  of  leisure,  civility 
and  refinement  are  requisites  for  promotion.    No  act 


BUSINESS  LETTERS  169 

more  surely  reveals  a  man  than  the  attitude  he  shows 
in  corresponding  with  business  men,  especially  if  they 
be  strangers. 

A  letter  should  get  under  way  at  once.  It  is  entirely 
unnecessary  to  use  any  set  phrases  for  opening  a  letter, 
unless  they  serve  a  real  purpose.  It  is  a  fact  that  many 
letters  are  written  under  the  same  conditions;  and  for 
this  reason  many  letters  start  in  nearly  the  same  way. 
This  fact  has  given  rise  to  certain  phrases  that  are  often 
seen  and  have  a  real  value.  "  Your  letter  of  the  16th 
instant,  requesting  prices  on  supplies,  has  been  received  " 
brings  the  reader  at  once  to  the  subject  of  the  letter, 
and  has  a  real  use.  There  are  many  other  opening 
phrases  that  are  good  because  they  serve  some  real 
purpose;  for  example:  "  Complying  with  your  request 
of  the  17th  instant  ";  "  We  are  in  receipt  of  your  favor 
of  the  28th  ";  **  Referring  to  the  matter  mentioned  last 
in  your  letter  of  the  16th  *';  **  Replying  to  your  letter 
of  the  2d.'*  The  thing  to  bear  in  mind  about  these  and 
similar  phrases  is  that  they  are  not  to  be  used  unless 
they  have  a  real  value. 

•  In  the  same  way  certain  sentences  are  often  found  at 
the  close  of  letters.  They  are  all  right,  if  they  are  needed; 
but  if  they  are  put  in  for  the  purpose  of  rounding  out  a 
letter  in  grand  style,  they  had  better  be  omitted.  There 
is  no  objection  to  "  Thanking  you  for  your  prompt 
attention  to  this  matter,  I  am  ";  "  Trusting  that  we  may 
hear  from  you,  we  are  *';  **  We  appreciate  your  order, 
and  solicit  further  patronage";  and  many  others, 
provided  they  are  grammatical  and  are  used  only  when 
the  occasion  demands. 

A  letter  should  be  divided  into  paragraphs  exactly 
as  any  other  piece  of  composition.  If  a  letter  is  a  short 
matter  about  only  one  topic,  there  will  be  but  one  para- 


170  LETTER-WRITING 

graph;  but  if  it  is  to  discuss  several  topics,  or  several 
phases  of  one  topic,  there  will  be  as  many  paragraphs 
as  there  are  divisions  or  subdivisions  of  thought.  Un- 
less a  letter  is  paragraphed,  it  must  be  read  entirely 
through  to  find  one  p>oint;  while  if  it  is  properly  divided, 
the  reader  can  glance  at  the  letter  and  find  the  matter 
he  wishes.  A  paragraph  oj>ening  with  a  quotation  on 
sugar  would  not  close  with  a  discussion  of  the  quality 
of  a  new  brand  of  breakfast  food.  Make  a  new  paragraph 
as  often  as  there  is  a  distinctly  new  topic  to  be  dis- 
cussed. 

LETTERS  OF  APPLICATION 

In  order  to  get  a  position  now-a-days,  it  is  often  nec- 
essary to  make  a  written  application.  This  is  always 
the  case  in  answering  advertisements,  and  often  even 
when  the  applicant  has  sought  the  place  in  person. 
Employers  can  tell  much  by  seeing  a  young  person; 
but  frequently  they  can  gain  quite  as  much  information 
concerning  an  applicant's  fitness  for  their  work  by 
means  of  a  letter;  so  the  applicant  is  asked  to  sit  down 
and  write  a  letter  applying  for  the  position. 

What  does  this  letter  tell  the  employer?  First,  the 
general  appearance  of  the  letter  indicates  clearly  that 
the  applicant  is  careful  or  careless;  neat  and  tidy,  or 
slovenly  and  lazy;  trained  to  do  things  correctly,  or 
without  training  in  the  essential  forms  in  letter- 
writing.  Second,  he  learns  whether  the  applicant  can 
write  a  legible  hand,  and  whether  he  spells  in  the  ac- 
cepted or  in  his  own  original  manner.  And  third,  he 
learns  whether  the  applicant  thinks  straight  and  can 
say  just  what  he  thinks. 

The  young  applicant  should  remember  that  there  are 
at  least  ten  applications  for  every  position.    It  would 


LETTERS  OF   APPLICATION  171 

be  safe  to  say  that  two-thirds  of  the  applications  re- 
ceived by  a  manager  are  thrown  into  a  waste-paper 
basket  without  reading.  Their  general  appearance  de- 
clares the  inefficiency  and  worthlessness  of  their  writers. 
The  few  that  look  good  to  the  manager  he  reads  care- 
fully, and  often  his  decision  rests  upon  what  may  seem 
to  the  applicant  the  merest  trifle.  A  mis-spelled  word 
has  often  lost  a  teacher  a  promotion;  a  discourteous 
"  Gents  "  has  turned  down  many  an  application;  so 
has  a  capital  letter  too  many  in  **  Yours  truly." 

What  matters  should  be  given  in  a  letter  of  applica- 
tion? First  will  be  the  occasion  that  prompts  the  letter: 
sometimes  an  advertisement;  sometimes  information 
given  by  a  friend;  sometimes  the  applicant's  own  initia- 
tive. Second  will  be  the  application  itself  —  a  single 
sentence,  courteous  and  dignified.  Then  will  follow, 
third,  a  statement  of  fitness  for  the  place,  including 
preparation  and  experience  in  the  same  or  a  similar 
line  of  work.  Fourth  will  be  given  the  names  of  persons 
to  whom  the  writer  is  permitted  to  refer,  men  qualified 
to  speak  of  his  character  and  ability.  Fifth,  there  will 
be  a  request  for  an  early  reply,  and  a  courteous  ending. 

In  giving  his  qualifications,  an  applicant  should  state 
all  the  facts  frankly,  but  no  more.  If  he  has  had  no 
experience,  he  may  as  well  say  so;  for  the  omission  of 
any  statement  on  this  matter  will  always  be  understood 
to  mean  that  he  has  had  no  experience.  Moreover,  if  he 
is  without  experience,  he  can  make  some  statement  of 
his  desire  to  learn,  which  will  in  a  measure  overcome  his 
lack  of  experience.  False  modesty  should  not  restrict 
his  words  to  less  than  could  be  said  by  his  friends;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  disposition  to  boast  and  overstate 
his  qualifications  is  sure  to  lead  to  shame  and  confusion 
when  the  truth  comes  out. 


17»  LETTER-WRITING 


Newport,  Ohio, 
Jan.  25,  1911. 
Burroughs  Mercantile  Co., 

Newport,  Ohio. 
Gentlemen : 

Having  read  the  advertisement  in  last  evening's 
Transcript,  asking  for  a  young  man  to  act  as  stenographer  in 
your  oflSce,  I  wish  to  file  my  application  and  to  submit  my 
qualifications. 

I  am  nineteen  years  old  and  have  just  completed  the  com- 
mercial course  in  the  Lincoln  High  School.  My  purpose  on 
entering  school  was  to  become  a  stenographer;  and  therefore 
I  took  all  the  work  in  stenography  and  type-writing  offered 
—  two  full  years.  I  can  take  one  hundred  words  a  minute 
of  ordinary  business  correspondence;  and  I  am  accurate  and 
have  good  speed  in  the  use  of  a  machine.  I  am  also  acquainted 
with  the  ordinary  devices  for  filing  letters. 

I  am  permitted  to  refer  you  to  Mr.  Jacob  Johnston,  1134 
Rondo  Avenue,  Rev.  Edward  Smith,  2734  Second  Street,  and 
Mr.  Milton  Lamb,  Manager  of  the  Smith  Dry  Goods  Co., 
regarding  my  character;  and  to  Mr.  J.  E.  Foss,  Lincoln  High 
School,  as  to  my  preparation. 

Hoping  that  my  application  will  receive  favorable  considera- 
tion, I  await  your  reply. 

Yours  respectfully, 

Alvin  Trafton. 


1035  Orono  Avenue, 
Cairo,  111., 
July  7,  1910. 
Mr.  J.  T.  Werring,  Secretary, 
Board  of  Education, 
Eldora,  Iowa. 
Sir: 

I  have  learned  through  Miss  Eunice  Munger  that  there 
is  to  be  a  vacancy  in  the  primary  department  of  your  city 
schools,  and  I  wish  to  be  considered  an  applicant  for  the  posi- 
tion. 


LETTERS  OF  APPLICATION  175 

Regarding  my  fitness  for  the  work,  I  may  say  that  I  am 
a  graduate  of  the  Bellevue  Normal  School,  from  the  Advanced 
Course.  After  leaving  this  school  I  taught  in  Bridgeport, 
111.,  for  three  years.  Then  I  attended  the  University  of  Illinois 
for  two  years,  doing  my  work  in  the  College  of  Education 
under  Prof.  Hugh  S.  Miller.  Last  year  I  filled  a  temporary 
position  in  South  Haven,  111.,  having  a  second  grade  room.  I 
have  reason  to  believe  that  I  have  been  successful  in  my  work, 
but  of  this  I  prefer  to  let  others  speak.  By  permission,  I  refer 
you  to  Supt.  A.  J.  Boss,  Bridgeport,  111.,  Supt.  L.  F.  Jones, 
South  Haven,  III.,  and  Prof.  Hugh  S.  Miller,  University  of 
Illinois. 

As  I  must  teach  this  coming  year,  and  a  long  delay  in  your 
decision  might  result  in  a  loss  of  any  position,  I  ask  the  favor 
of  an  early  reply. 

Respectfully  yours, 

(Miss)  Elma  B.  Barrier. 

EXERCISE 

1.  In  answer  to  an  advertisement,  write  an  applica- 
tion for  a  position  in  the  office  of  a  telegraph  company. 

2.  You  are  working  your  way  through  school,  and 
wish  to  get  on  a  survey.  Write  an  application  to  the 
Chief  Engineer  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  St. 
Paul  Railway,  with  head  office  in  Chicago.  You  do  not 
know  that  there  is  any  place  vacant,  nor  do  you  know 
any  one  in  their  employ. 

3.  Large  department  stores  and  telephone  offices 
always  need  capable  girls.  Write  a  letter  of  application 
to  one  or  the  other  for  a  place.  It  may  be  that  you  will 
have  to  address  your  letter  to  a  near-by  city. 

4.  You  desire  to  learn  the  lumber  business,  and, are 
willing  to  begin  at  the  bottom  and  work  in  the  yard. 
Write  a  letter  asking  for  employment  with  a  firm  doing 
a  big  business. 

5.  An  advertisement  appeared  in  the  morning  paper 
as  follows :  — 


174  LETTER-WRITING 

WANTED  —  A  young  lady  with  a  good  education  to 
take  charge  of  the  education  of  two  young  girls.  She  will  be 
expected  to  teach  them  French  and  German,  as  well  as  the 
common  branches  usually  given  in  our  public  schools.  A 
comfortable  home  will  be  provided. 

Address  Journal  J  7. 

Write  a  letter  applying  for  this  position.  Such  a  letter 
would  have  no  address,  and  should  begin  with  "  Sir  " 
or  "  Madam." 

6.  A  graduate  of  a  high  school  wishes  to  learn  the 
machinist's  trade.  He  has  finished  a  manual  training 
course  in  a  good  high  school.  Write  his  letter  to  The 
Eagle  Foundry. 

7.  A  man  of  large  experience  in  conducting  a  general 
merchandise  establishment  has  been  compelled  to  move 
to  the  Pacific  Coast  on  account  of  his  wife's  health. 
He  learns  through  a  friend  of  an  opening  in  a  thriving 
new  town.   Write  his  letter  of  application. 

LETTERS   OF  RECOMMENDATION 

A  letter  of  recommendation,  to  be  of  value,  must  state 
definitely  specific  reasons  for  the  recommendation. 
General  recommendations  are  of  very  little  value;  few 
persons  are  so  dishonest  or  incapable  that  a  general 
statement  in  their  favor  cannot  be  made.  Neither  is 
it  sufficient  to  state  that  the  applicant  is  a  graduate  of 
a  high  school  or  a  college.  Many  that  are  worthy  of  no 
commendation  whatever  finish  courses  at  these  schools. 
If  a  young  person  is  honest  enough  not  to  steal  time; 
if  he  tells  the  truth,  though  it  be  to  his  own  hurt;  if  he 
has  made  the  most  of  his  time  in  school,  and  is  never 
satisfied  with  his  present  attainments;  if  he  is  active, 
economical,  punctual,  considerate,  courteous,  and  has 
initiative,  he  has  qualities  that  recommend  him.  These 


LETTERS   OF  RECOMMENDATION  175 

and  similar  qualities  are  those  that  should  be  men- 
tioned in  a  letter  of  recommendation. 

Sometimes  it  is  necessary  to  write  a  letter  of  recom- 
mendation addressed  "  To  whom  it  may  concern." 
Naturally,  the  writer  of  such  a  letter  is  limited,  because 
he  does  not  know  to  whom  it  may  be  presented,  nor  for 
what  kind  of  position  the  applicant  will  use  it.  Many 
men  will  serve  well  in  one  capacity,  and  be  quite  unfit 
for  a  different  kind  of  employment.  A  letter  "  To  whom  it 
may  concern**  will  always  be  guarded  in  its  expression. 

I 

Newport,  Ohio, 
Jan.  27,  1911. 
Mr.  Jacob  Johnston, 

1134  Rondo  Avenue, 

Newport,  Ohio. 
Dear  Sir: 

We  have  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Alvin  Trafton, 
applying  for  a  position  as  stenographer  with  us.  He  has  re- 
ferred to  you  as  a  man  competent  to  tell  us  of  his  fitness  for 
the  position.  Will  you  give  us  your  impression  of  Mr.  Trafton, 
and  especially  of  his  fitness  for  this  place .'^  An  early  reply  will 
be  appreciated  by  us,  and  will  be  of  value  to  the  applicant. 
Truly  yours. 

Burroughs  Mercantile  Co. 
per  A.  J.  B. 

II 

Newport,  Ohio, 
Jan.  28,  1911. 
Burroughs  Mercantile  Co., 

Newport,  Ohio. 
Gentlemen: 

In  reply  to  yours  of  the  27th  inst.,  I  am  glad  to 
write  you  in  regard  to  Mr.  Alvin  Trafton.  I  have  known  him 
well  all  through  his  life,  and  believe  I  am  competent  to  speak. 
His  father  died  some  years  ago,  after  a  long  illness,  leaving 
the  familv  in  rather  straitened  circumstances.  From  a  little 


176  LETTER-WRITING 

fellow,  Alvin  has  earned  his  own  spending  money,  by  doing 
odd  jobs  in  the  neighborhood;  and  as  soon  as  he  was  old 
enough  he  secured  a  permanent  place  in  the  store  of  the  Smith 
Dry  Goods  Co.,  running  a  delivery  wagon  afternoons  and 
Saturdays.  His  service  of  five  years  with  this  firm  is  evidence 
of  his  faithfulness  and  honesty.  He  has  during  the  last  four 
yiears  completed  a  course  in  the  Lincoln  High  School,  with  a 
rank  of  fourth  in  a  class  of  seventy-five.  He  has  so  chosen  his 
studies  that  he  is  specially  trained  for  your  work,  and  he  will 
care  for  your  correspondence  in  a  very  satisfactory  manner. 
Hoping  that  you  will  give  this  young  man  a  chance  to  prove 
his  worth,  I  am 

Yours  very  truly, 

Jacob  Johnston. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Write  the  letter  that  Rev.  Edward  Smith  wrote 
for  Alvin  Trafton. 

2.  Write  the  letter  that  Supt.  A.  J.  Boss  wrote  for 
Elma  Barrier. 

3.  Write  a  letter  recommending  a  cashier  for  a  big 
mercantile  house. 

4.  Write  a  letter  recommending  a  machinist. 

5.  Write  a  letter  of  recommendation  *'  To  whom  it 
may  concern." 

LETTERS   OF  INTRODUCTION 

The  purpose  of  a  letter  of  introduction  is  to  bring 
together  two  persons  known  to  the  writer,  but  unknown 
to  each  other.  Such  a  letter  may  be  purely  social, 
bringing  together  persons  who  would  be  congenial  ;  or 
it  may  be  for  business  purposes.  For  example,  an  agent 
is  sent  into  new  territory,  and  notes  of  introduction  to 
a  few  leading  men  may  be  very  valuable;  or,  circum- 
stances may  compel  a  change  of  residence,  and  a  few 
letters  pave  the  way  for  new  employment. 


LETTERS  OF  INTRODUCTION  177 

A  letter  of  introduction  should  state  the  reason  for 
bringing  the  two  persons  together.  If  a  social  letter, 
it  will  name  the  common  interest  that  will  make  their 
acquaintance  enjoyable.  If  a  business  letter,  it  will 
name  some  commercial  matter  of  interest  to  both. 
It  should  always  bespeak  confidence  in  the  person  in- 
troduced.  Such  a  letter  is  usually  left  unsealed. 

Smith  and  Jones  are  acquainted;  so  are  Smith  and 
Edwards.  Smith  writes  a  letter  to  introduce  Edwards 
to  Jones. 


Mr.  William  Jones, 

Buena  Vista, 

Minn. 


Introducing  Mr.  Edwards. 


Albany,  N.  Y., 

August  11,  1911. 
Mr.  William  Jones, 

Buena  Vista,  Minn. 
My  dear  Mr.  Jones:  —  This  letter  will  introduce  to  you  Mr. 
Jonathan  Edwards  of  our  city,  who  has  been  compelled  by 
ill  health  to  sever  his  connection  with  our  business.  It  is  a 
cause  of  deep  regret  to  us  that  he  must  leave;  for  his  fifteen 
years  as  head  of  our  hardware  department  have  made  him 
very  valuable,  and  we  have  come  to  appreciate  his  personal 
qualities  very  highly.  Knowing  that  you  are  in  touch  with 
the  business  of  your  section,  I  thought  that  you  could  be  of 
assistance  to  Mr.  Edwards.  I  assure  you  that  he  is  absolutely 
reliable;  and  I  believe  that  you  will  find  him  a  delightful 


178  LETTER-WRITING 

man  in  his  hours  away  from  business.   If  you  have  kept  up 
your  interest  in  music,  you  will  find  Mr.  Edwards  a  man 
to  your  liking.    He  sings  and  plays  with  excellent  taste,  and 
you  both  could  enjoy  many  evenings  together. 
With  best  wishes  for  your  continued  success,  lam 
Sincerely  yours, 

Hawley  Smith. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Write  a  letter  from  a  Dartmouth  '10  man  to  a  '92 
man,  now  living  in  Fargo,  N.  Dak.  The  young  man 
wishes  to  go  West,  and  enter  business  there.  He  has 
no  experience  that  specially  fits  him  for  anything,  but 
hopes  to  get  a  start  in  this  thriving  young  city. 

2.  A  young  man  just  leaving  high  school  wishes  to 
work  in  a  foundry.  You  have  a  friend  running  one. 
Write  a  letter  of  introduction  for  the  young  man,  whom 
you  have  known  for  years.  Give  great  stress  to  two  of 
the  boy's  qualifications  for  the  position. 

3.  George  R.  Newell  &  Co.  are  in  the  wholesale 
grocery  business  in  Minneapolis.  They  are  sending  a 
new  man  into  some  of  their  territory.  Write  a  circular 
letter  to  the  old  customers.  Tell  them  that  the  man 
who  used  to  visit  them  has  been  taken  into  the  business, 
and  will  now  devote  himself  to  serving  his  customers 
better  than  ever;  that  they  will  find  the  new  represen- 
tative desirous  of  satisfying  their  wants.  Request  a 
continuance  of  their  patronage. 

4.  Mr.  Herbert  Watson  is  about  to  open  a  drug 
store  in  Bayfield,  Montana.  He  wishes  to  open  an  ac- 
count with  Noyes  Bros,  and  Cutler,  Wholesale  Drug- 
gists in  Columbus,  Ohio.  They  are  unacquainted  with 
him.  Write  the  letter  asking  the  favor  of  a  running  ac- 
count with  this  firm.  You  will  need  to  refer  to  some 
persons  of  reputation  and  standing. 


LETTERS   ORDERING   GOODS  179 

5.  Noyes  Bros,  and  Cutler  have  a  representative  in 
the  territory.  They  advise  him  of  Mr.  Watson's  wish 
and  ask  him  to  go  to  Bayfield  and  inquire  about  his 
standing.   Write  the  letter  they  wrote  their  agent. 

6.  Write  the  letter  the  agent  sent  to  Noyes  Bros,  and 
Cutler. 

7.  Write  the  letter  from  Noyes  Bros,  and  Cutler  to 
Mr.  Watson,  accepting  his  proposition  or  rejecting  it. 

8.  AHce  Trenholme  is  going  abroad  for  her  vacation. 
She  studies  architecture  after  her  day's  work  in  the 
office  of  a  large  department  store.  Mr.  Kenyon  is  ac- 
quainted with  the  Dean  of  Lincoln  Cathedral  and  gives 
her  a  letter  of  introduction  to  him.  What  does  the 
letter  say? 

LETTERS  ORDERING  GOODS 

A  letter  that  contains  an  order  for  goods  must  be 
written  with  great  care,  that  there  may  be  no  mistakes; 
for  mistakes  always  cause  trouble,  and  often  cost  money. 
Such  a  letter  should  contain,  first,  careful  shipping  di- 
rections :  whether  by  freight  or  express,  and  over  what 
lines.  Second,  the  articles  should  be  completely  and 
accurately  described.  If  ordering  from  a  catalogue,  the 
catalogue  number  should  be  given  in  addition  to  the 
description.  The  number  of  each  article  should  be  in 
figures  and  not  written  out.  Third,  if  you  enclose  a 
check  or  a  draft  in  payment  of  the  bill,  that  should  be 
stated.  If  the  goods  are  to  be  charged  to  your  account, 
you  should  state  that  fact.  In  case  a  check  is  enclosed 
either  in  payment  of  the  bill  or  to  apply  on  a  running 
account,  it  is  the  custom  to  pin  it  to  the  top  of  the  let- 
ter, and  to  write  at  the  left  below  the  letter,  "  Inc."  for 
"  Inclosure,'*  so  that  the  clerk  in  charge  of  mail  shall 
see  that  the  check  is  inclosed  before  he  seals  the  letter. 


180  LETTER-WRITING 

421  South  Seventh  Street, 
Duluth,  Minn., 

July  29,  1911. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co., 

623-633  South  Wabash  Avenue, 
Chicago,  III. 
Gentlemen: 

Please  ship  at  once  by  freight  over  the  Duluth 
and  South  Shore  Line  the  following  books  of  the  Riverside 
Literature  Series:  — 

55  copies  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  No.    94  Paper 
55      "      Carlyle's  Essay  on  Burns  "    105       " 

85  "      George  Eliot's  Silas  Marner      "      83  Linen     . 

86  "      Shakespeare's  Julius  Caesar       **      67  Paper 
110      "      Scott's  Ivanhoe  "      86  Linen 

You  will  find  inclosed  a  draft  for  $328.35,  in  full  payment 
of  my  account  to  date. 

Truly  yours, 

Peter  Johnson. 

EXERCISE 

1.  A  car  will  hold  about  20,000  feet  of  lumber.  Write 
a  letter  to  the  C.  A.  Smith  Lumber  Co.,  Friday  Harbor, 
Wash.,  ordering  enough  lumber  to  make  a  carioad.  It 
might  be  well  to  get  a  price  list  to  make  the  order 
accurate,  with  prices  correct.   Include  six  items. 

2.  John  Sederstrom  runs  a  grocery  store  in  Rockford, 
Kansas.  He  orders  a  bill  of  goods  from  the  St.  Louis 
Mercantile  Co.,  St.  Louis,  Missouri.  The  order  contains 
ten  items.  He  pays  $360.00  on  account.  Write  the  letter. 

3.  You  live  on  an  inter-urban  line  out  from  Indiana- 
polis, Indiana.  Order  supplies  necessary  for  the  house- 
hold, to  be  sent  by  express  over  the  line  to  your  place. 
Have  seven  items.  Be  very  specific  in  your  description 
of  articles. 

4.  Order  from  the  house  nearest  you,   dealing   in 


LETTERS  OF  COMPLAINT  181 

sporting  goods,  the  materials  necessary  for  your  school 
track  team. 

5.  Order  automobile  supplies  for  a  private  machine. 

6.  Order  five  of  the  newest  songs  for  yourself.  State 
the  range  of  your  voice.  Be  sure  to  tell  the  dealer 
enough  so  that  he  will  send  you  music  that  you  can  use. 

7.  Write  an  order  for  the  materials  that  are  neces- 
sary for  a  school  dress. 

8.  Order  from  a  newspaper  agency  three  papers  and 
two  magazines  for  the  coming  year.  Be  sure  to  state 
the  date  on  which  you  wish  the  subscription  year  to 
begin. 

9.  Order  an  aeroplane,  giving  the  kind,  power,  num- 
ber of  passengers,  and  color  of  finish  you  wish. 

LETTERS   OF  COMPLAINT 

It  is  often  the  case  that  something  in  a  bill  of  goods 
is  not  satisfactory.  For  instance,  (1)  the  order  may  not 
be  definite,  in  which  case  the  dealer  has  to  use  his  judg- 
ment in  filling  the  order,  or  has  to  hold  it  for  more  com- 
plete instructions;  or,  (2)  the  dealer  may  be  out  of  the 
brand  of  goods  ordered,  and  so  may  substitute  another 
which  he  says  is  just  as  good;  or,  (3)  the  dealer  may  send 
goods  that  he  knows  are  of  inferior  quality,  hoping 
that  his  customer  does  not  know  the  difference.  In  the 
first  case  the  man  ordering  is  at  fault  and  should  try  to 
adjust  the  matter;  in  the  other  two  cases,  the  dealer  is 
wrong,  and  it  is  entirely  proper  for  the  customer  to  re- 
fuse to  receive  the  goods.  In  letters  of  complaint,  refer 
to  the  order  of  which  a  copy  is  on  file,  giving  the  date 
and  repeating  such  parts  of  the  order  as  are  in  contro- 
versy. All  letters  of  complaint  should  be  courteous,  no 
matter  how  much  occasion  there  may  be  for  sharp  words. 
Neverwritealetterwhenyouareangry.  Youwill  regretit. 


182  LETTER-WRITING 

EXERCISE 

1.  Write  three  letters  of  complaint:  — 

a.  One  alleging  that  goods  have  been  received  that 
were  not  ordered. 

b.  One  expressing  dissatisfaction  because  goods 
have  been  substituted,  possibly  of  an  equally 
good  brand,  but  not  suited  to  the  trade. 

c.  One  claiming  that  the  goods  are  of  a  very  in- 
ferior quality. 

2.  In  the  case  of  the  order  for  groceries  in  the  pre- 
ceding lesson,  the  merchant  was  not  careful  to  make  his 
order  definite,  so  that  the  dealer  did  not  wish  to  take 
the  responsibility  of  shipping  that  distance,  and  wrote 
to  John  Sederstrom  for  more  definite  instructions. 
Write  the  letter. 

3.  Write  Sederstrom's  reply. 

4.  Referring  to  number  three  of  the  preceding  ex- 
ercise, write  a  letter  from  the  dealer  in  Indianapolis, 
refusing  to  fill  the  order,  saying  that  there  is  an  old  ac- 
count unpaid,  of  which  a  statement  is  enclosed.  Write 
the  statement  of  account,  and  enclose  it. 

5.  Write  the  replies  to  the  letters  in  Section  1  of  this 
Exercise:  the  first  showing  that  the  order  was  indefinite, 
and  was  filled  to  the  best  of  their  judgment;  the  second 
saying  that  they  were  out  of  the  particular  brand  of 
goods  ordered,  and  that,  wishing  to  have  the  whole 
order  go  forward  together  they  had  made  the  change. 
State  that  the  goods  shipped  are  in  fact  better  than  those 
ordered.  The  third  letter  will  state  that  the  goods  or- 
dered were  not  in  the  market,  and  that  the  dealer  had 
done  his  best  to  fill  the  order  in  a  satisfactory  way. 

All  these  letters  should  express  regret  that  any  mis- 
take had  been  made.  The  desire  of  all  merchants  is  to 
have  customers  satisfied. 


\ 


LETTERS  REQUESTING  PAYMENT  183 

6.  Write  a  letter  in  answer  to  the  first  in  the  previous 
section,  regretting  that  there  was  any  indefiniteness  in 
the  order,  but  saying  that  the  goods  will  not  do,  and 
asking  that  they  may  be  sent  back  at  the  customer's 
expense. 

7.  Write  a  letter  in  answer  to  the  third  part  of  Sec- 
tion 5,  repeating  your  assertion  that  the  goods  are  in- 
ferior and  will  not  be  accepted,  and  that  you  will  hold 
them  for  his  intructions. 

8.  Write  a  reply  to  Section  7  of  this  Exercise,  asking 
that  the  goods  be  shipped  to  Hancock,  Missouri,  to  the 
Square  Deal  Mercantile  Co.  State  your  regret  that  the 
goods  are  unsatisfactory,  but  say  that  it  is  your  inten- 
tion to  be  fair,  and  so  you  have  taken  the  goods  off  the 
customer's  hands.  Express  a  wish  that  at  some  future 
time  an  opportunity  will  be  given  to  try  again. 

LETTERS   REQUESTING  PAYMENT 

Possibly  no  letters  give  so  much  annoyance  as  those 
requesting  the  payment  of  past  due  accounts.  Every 
business  man  wishes  to  hold  his  customers;  to  do  it 
he  must  not  give  offense.  Yet  bills  must  be  paid;  and 
nothing  is  so  likely  to  offend  as  to  intimate  to  a  man  that 
he  is  not  keeping  to  his  agreements.  Most  goods  are 
sold  on  thirty  or  sixty  days'  time;  and  to  delay  payment 
beyond  the  time  agreed  upon  is  essentially  a  breach  of 
contract.  For  this  reason,  to  request  payment  always 
carries  with  it  an  implied  accusation.  To  write  a  letter 
asking  a  customer  to  settle  his  account,  then,  requires 
much  delicacy  and  tact.  Such  a  letter  must  be  direct, 
but  must  not  be  rude  or  harsh. 

The  first  letter  sent  out  requesting  payment  is  usu- 
ally printed;  and  does  little  more  than  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  account  is  past  due.   The  writer  does 


184  LETTER-WRITING 

not  yet  know  why  the  bill  has  not  been  paid :  misfortunes 
may  have  come;  the  bill  may  have  been  overlooked;  or 
it  may  be  that  the  customer  is  dishonest  and  cares  little 
for  his  reputation  in  the  business  community.  Because 
the  dealer  does  not  know  the  conditions,  it  would  be  un- 
wise to  make  demands  or  threats  in  the  first  letter. 

In  the  second,  or  "  follow-up  "  letter,  the  writer  gen- 
erally alleges  some  reason  why  it  is  necessary  for  him  to 
have  the  money  at  the  special  time.  It  may  be  that  he 
has  a  note  coming  due;  bad  crops  may  have  curtailed 
his  business;  he  may  be  closing  up  a  partnership;  or  he 
may  be  moving  from  the  city.  If  he  has  no  special  rea- 
son, there  is  always  the  general  reason  that  a  man  in 
business  must  meet  his  own  obligations;  and  to  do  i1 
he  must  insist  that  his  customers  do  the  same  thing. 
This  letter  is  personal,  and  should  be  urgent  in  its  re* 
quest. 

In  the  third  letter,  a  different  tone  is  assumed.  The 
writer  has  now  exhausted  the  common  methods  of  col- 
lection, and  demands  that  there  be  a  settlement  within 
a  short  time  —  ten  or  fifteen  days.  If  this  is  not  attended 
to,  he  regrets  that  he  will  be  compelled  to  adopt  severer 
methods.  This  means  that  he  will  turn  the  account  over 
to  an  attorney  or  a  collection  agency.  Yet  nowhere  in 
the  correspondence  is  there  any  place  where  a  man  can 
afford  to  be  less  than  polite.  A  courteous  firmness 
should  characterize  such  a  letter. 

1 

Minot,  South  Dakota, 

May  23,  1911. 
Mr.  James  Appleton, 

Minot,  South  Dakota. 
Dear  Sir: 

Your  account,  amounting  to  $78.40,  is  thirty  days 


LETTERS  REQUESTING  PAYMENT  185 

past  due.   You  will  oblige  me  by  attending  to  it  as  soon  as 
convenient. 

Very  truly  yours, 
S.  Johnson. 


Minot,  South  Dakota, 

June  21,  1911.      ^ 
Mr.  James  Appleton, 

Minot,  South  Dakota. 
Dear  Sir: 

Thirty  days  ago  I  wrote  you  that  your  account  was 
past  due,  and  asked  that  it  be  paid.  It  must  be  clear  to  you 
that  I  am  compelled  to  meet  my  bills  on  time;  and  it  is  only 
by  the  payment  of  accounts  due  me  that  I  can  make  my  settle- 
ments. At  this  time  of  year  we  must  meet  heavy  payments 
for  our  spring  stock.  I  very  much  need  the  whole  amount ; 
but  if  it  is  not  possible  for  you  to  pay  the  whole  amount  at 
once,  send  me  as  much  as  you  possibly  can.  Please  attend  to 
this  at  once. 

Truly  yours, 

S.  Johnson. 


Ill 

Minot,  South  Dakota, 
July  1,  1911. 
Mr.  James  Appleton, 

Minot,  South  Dakota. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  written  to  you  twice,  but  so  far  I  have  heard 
nothing  from  you  in  answer  to  my  letters  asking  for  a  settle- 
ment of  your  account.  I  regret  that  it  is  necessary  for  me  to 
place  this  matter  in  the  hands  of  my  attorney,  but  your  con- 
tinued disregard  of  my  requests  compels  me  to  take  this 
action. 

Truly  yours, 

S.  Johnson. 


186  LETTER-WRITING 

IV 

Minot,  South  Dakota, 

July  5,  1911. 
Mr.  James  Appleton, 

Minot,  South  Dakota. 
Dear  Sir: 

S.  Johnson  has  placed  in  my  hands  his  account 
against  you,  amounting  to  $78.40.  Will  you  not  call  at  my 
bflfice  and  arrange  this  matter.?^  I  should  deeply  regret  having 
to  take  this  to  court,  and  so  to  cause  you  the  added  expense 
of  a  trial. 

Respectfully  yours, 

Edward  Littleton. 

EXERCISE 

1.  A  bill  of  lumber  was  sold  at  sixty  days.  Fifteen 
days  after  it  was  due,  C.  A.  Smith  Lumber  Co.  sent  out 
a  printed  letter  stating  the  amount  due  and  requesting 
its  payment.  Write  such  a  letter. 

2.  Not  hearing  from  the  customer,  ten  days  later 
they  sent  a  personal  letter,  stating  the  reason  why  it 
was  necessary  for  them  to  have  the  money  at  once. 
Write  the  letter. 

S.  Write  a  reply  to  the  letter  giving  a  sufficient  cause 
for  the  delay,  and  enclosing  a  check  for  the  full  amount. 
The  letter  should  thank  the  dealer  for  his  kindness  in 
letting  the  bill  go  past  due.  If  there  is  an  inclosure, 
what  should  be  done? 

4.  Write  another  reply  saying  that  it  is  impossible 
to  meet  the  bill  in  full,  giving  a  good  reason.  Pay  half 
the  amount  and  ask  for  an  extension  of  thirty  days  on 
the  balance. 

5.  A  man  having  ordered  automobile  supplies,  leaves 
the  city.  The  dealer  sends  him  three  letters  asking 
payment,  but  receives  no  reply.    The  last  letter  is  un- 


LETTERS  OF  FRIENDSHIP  187 

necessarily  harsh.  When  the  man  arrives  home  he  finds 
all  the  letters,  and  is  much  stirred  up  over  the  last  one. 
He  writes,  expressing  surprise  that  the  dealer  should 
think  that  he  would  not  pay  the  bill,  and  saying  that 
in  the  future  he  will  make  his  purchases  at  some  other 
place.  Write  the  letter  that  brought  the  reply,  and  the 
reply  to  it. 

6.  Write  a  letter  demanding  payment  of  a  long  past 
due  account.  You  have  sent  the  customer  several  state- 
ments of  the  amount  due,  and  three  letters  urging  the 
payment.  You  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  customer 
is  trying  to  avoid  payment,  and  have  concluded  that 
the  only  way  to  reach  him  is  to  be  severe.  State  that  if 
the  account  is  not  settled  within  a  few  days  (you  name 
the  date),  the  matter  will  be  given  to  your  attorney  for 
collection  by  suit. 

LETTERS  OF  FRIENDSHIP 

Letters  of  friendship  differ  from  business  letters  in 
this  point  especially:  they  are  written  primarily  to  en- 
tertain, while  business  letters  are  to  give  information. 
Many  of  the  best  letter-writers  in  their  social  letters 
have  been  so  clever  in  handling  information  that  one 
almost  forgets  the  matter  in  the  pleasure  he  derives 
from  the  manner  in  which  it  is  given.  The  following 
letter  by  Miss*Mitford  shows  how  a  few  trifles  cleverly 
said  may  make  a  good  letter:  — 

Bertram  House, 
Dec.  28,  1818. 
My  dear  Friend, — Did  I  ever  mention  to  you,  or  did  you  ever 
hear  elsewhere  of  a  Miss  Nevinson,  poetess,  novelist,  essayist, 
and  reviewer?  I  have  just  been  writing  to  her  in  answer  to  a 
very  kind  letter,  but  writing  in  such  alarm  that  I  quivered  and 
shook,  and  looked  into  the  dictionary  to  see  how  to  spell  they 
and  asked  mamma  if  there  were  two  t's  in  tottering.    You 


188  LETTER-WRITING 

never  saw  anybody  in  such  a  fright.  It  was  like  writing  in 
chains;  and  now  that  I  am  writing  to  you,  for  whom  I  don't 
care  a  pin,  it's  like  a  galley-slave  let  loose  from  the  oar. 

Such  is  my  horror  of  being  forced  to  mind  my  P's  and  Q's,  to 
look  to  my  stops  and  see  to  my  spelling,  to  be  fine,  and  sen- 
sible, and  literary  —  and  so  alarming  a  lady  is  Miss  Nevin- 
son,  so  sure  to  put  one  on  the  defensive,  even  when  she  has  no 
intention  to  attack.  This  is  no  great  compliment  to  my  fair 
correspondent,  but  it  is  the  truth.  Miss  Nevinson  is  a  very 
extraordinary  woman;  her  conversation  (fof  I  don't  think 
very  highly  of  her  writings)  is  perhaps  the  most  dazzling  and 
brilliant  that  can  be  imagined. 

I  have  just  been  reading  Hazlitt's  View  of  the  Stage  —  rather 
like  dining  on  sweetmeats  and  supping  on  pickles.  So  poignant 
is  he,  and  so  rich,  everything  seems  insipid  after  him.  This 
amusement,  great  as  it  always  would  have  been,  was  very 
much  heightened  to  me  by  recollecting  so  well  the  first  pub- 
lication of  the  best  articles  —  those  on  Kean  in  the  Morning 
Chronicle.  I  was  at  Tavistock  House  at  the  time,  and  well 
remember  the  doleful  visage  with  which  Mr.  Perry  used  to 
contemplate  the  long  column  of  criticism,  and  how  he  used 
to  execrate  "the  fellow's  silly  stuff"  for  filling  up  so  much  of 
the  paper  in  the  very  height  of  the  advertisement  season.  I 
shall  never  forget  his  long  face.  It  was  the  only  time  of  the 
day  that  I  ever  saw  it  either  long  or  sour.  He  had  not  the 
slightest  suspicion  that  he  had  a  man  of  genius  in  his  pay  — 
not  the  most  remote  perception  of  the  merit  of  the  writing 
—  nor  the  slightest  companionship  with  the  author.  He  hired 
him  as  you  hire  your  footman,  and  turned  him  off  (with  as 
little  or  less  ceremony  than  you  would  use  in  discharging  the 
aforesaid  worthy  personage)  for  a  very  masterly  but  damaging 
critique  on  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence,  whom  Mr.  Perry,  as  one 
whom  he  visited  and  was  being  painted  by,  chose  to  have 
praised. 

Hazlitt's  revenge  was  exceedingly  characteristic.  Last 
winter,  when  his  Characters  of  Shakespeare  and  his  lectures  had 
brought  him  into  fashion,  Mr.  Perry  remembered  him  as  an 
old  acquaintance,  and  asked  him  to  dinner,  and  a  large  party 
to  meet  him,  to  hear  him  talk,  and  to  show  him  off  as  the  lion  of 
the  day.  The  lion  came  —  smiled  and  bowed  —  handed  Miss 
Bentley  to  the  dining-room  —  said  once  "Yes"  and  twice 


LETTERS  OF  FRIENDSHIP  189 

"No"  —  and  never  uttered  another  word  the  whole  evening. 
The  most  provoking  part  of  this  scene  was,  that  he  was  grac- 
ious and  polite  past  all  expression  —  a  perfect  pattern  of  mute 
elegance  —  a  silent  Lord  Chesterfield;  and  his  unlucky  host 
had  the  misfortune  to  be  thoroughly  enraged  without  any- 
thing to  complain  of. 

Most  faithfully  and  affectionately  yours, 
M.  R.  Mitford. 


In  this  letter  by  Miss  Mitford  is  found  the  second 
rule  for  a  friendly  letter:  it  should  be  just  like  delightful 
talk  —  no  pomp,  no  affectation,  no  airs  —  just  one's  real 
self.  A  letter  should  have  spirit  and  dash,  and  should 
represent  the  writer  in  his  very  best  mood.  A  letter 
that  sounds  "  just  like  her  "  when  she  is  most  entertain- 
ing is  a  good  letter.  The  little  incidents  should  be  just 
as  well  told  as  the  writer  can  tell  them,  using  all  the  art 
he  has  acquired  in  the  study  of  composition;  yet  they 
should  not  be  formal  or  stiff,  as  if  addressed  to  an  au- 
dience, but  easy  and  informal,  as  if  talked  to  a  dear 
friend  before  an  open  fire.  If  the  letter  is  well  written, 
the  writer  is  with  the  reader;  his  voice,  the  merry  twinkle 
in  his  eye,  the  hearty  laugh,  the  sorrow  and  earnestness, 
the  sympathy  —  all  are  there.  A  good  letter  reflects 
all  the  delightful  peculiarities  of  the  writer's  real  self. 

And  third,  a  good  letter  always  suits  the  person  to 
whom  it  is  written.  Certain  things  will  interest  him; 
others  will  not.  And  one  kind  of  language  will  be  used 
in  writing  to  a  grandfather,  another  in  addressing  the 
principal  of  a  school,  and  yet  a  different  kind  in 
talking  to  a  little  child.  The  following  is  a  letter  by 
Phillips  Brooks  to  his  sister-in-law,  whose  husband, 
"  William,"  is  his  companion  on  a  trip  abroad.  Notice 
how  everything  in  the  letter  will  be  of  interest  to 
"Mary"  at  home. 


190  LETTER-WRITING 

Lucerne, 

Sunday,  August  12,  1877. 
Dear  Mary, 

Now  I  will  tell  you  all  about  it.  I  dare  say 
William  has  written  you  since  we  arrived  at  Liverpool,  but 
perhaps  he  has  not  told  you  anything  about  where  we  have 
been,  or  what  we  have  been  doing.  I  must  go  back  to  the 
steamer,  where  there  were  a  great  many  pleasant  people.  We 
sailed  along  as  quietly  as  if  we  were  paddling  on  this  beautiful 
lake  of  Lucerne,  the  sea  bag  hardly  wiggled-waggled  on  the 
wall.  Everybody  came  to  dinner,  and  the  tables  were  dread- 
fully crowded.  On  the  whole,  it  was  n't  much  of  a  voyage, 
quiet,  dull,  and  respectable.  We  probably  shall  get  something 
livelier  going  back,  when  the  September  sea  will  throw  up 
its  heels  and  make  some  sort  of  rumpus. 

Then  we  came  to  England,  where,  if  it  had  not  been  for 
General  Grant,  we  should  have  been  of  some  consequence, 
but  they  were  all  taken  up  with  him,  and  looked  at  us  as  if 
they  wondered  what  we  had  come  for.  And  we  went  about 
among  them  as  if  we  had  as  good  a  right  as  they  had,  because 
our  great-great-great-grandfathers  came  from  there.  Their 
country  looked  beautiful,  and  London  never  seemed  fuller  of 
people,  and  was  pretty  hot.  It  is  terrible  to  think  how  many 
times  we  have  been  sizzling  with  heat  and  shivering  with 
cold  since  we  left  New  York.  I  feel  like  one  of  the  pieces  of 
meat,  which  we  have  had  served  up  at  many  of  our  dining- 
places,  which  have  evidently  been  heated  over  and  then 
cooled  down  again  a  dozen  times  for  diflferent  travellers  who 
came.  However,  it  is  a  pretty  healthy  process,  and  we  are 
getting  as  tough  as  some  of  the  pieces  of  meat.  Well,  that  is 
what  we  did  in  London. 

Then  we  crossed  over  to  the  Continent  and  so  came  to  the 
Belgians  and  Hollanders.  The  country  up  there  was  damp  and 
interesting.  It  was  curious  to  see  how  hard  they  have  worked 
to  save  it  from  the  sea,  and  you  wonder  why  they  wanted  to 
save  it.  The  men  looked  wooden-headed  and  the  women 
golden-headed,  not  as  to  their  hair,  but  they  wear  gold  blinders, 
like  very  swell  horses,  which  make  them  look  very  funny,  and 
compel  you  to  go  on  the  other  side  of  the  street  when  you 
meet  a  first-rate  a  la  girl.  But  they  were  a  dear  old  people,  and 
I  can  hear  their  wooden  shoes  clattering  about  the  Amster- 


LETTERS  OF  FRIENDSHIP  191 

dam  pavements  now.  I  have  no  doubt  they  will  go  on  grow- 
ing up  (those  of  them  who  don't  fall  into  the  canals  and  get 
drowned  in  early  youth),  generation  after  generation,  and 
thinking  they  have  got  the  best  country  in  the  world. 

Then  came  the  Rhine,  and  a  little  glimpse  of  Germany,  and 
Gothic  architecture,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  our  romantic 
period.  It  was  all  pretty,  and  William  kept  up  a  lively  life, 
sight-seeing  all  day.  Then  came  the  green  Tyrol,  running  up 
to  the  white  Alps  and  sending  us  over  from  the  snow-storm  on 
the  Stelvio  to  swelter  in  Verona.  We  put  on  overcoats  and 
wondered  whether  we  had  really  thirsted  for  a  drop  of  water 
only  two  days  before.  Then  came  Venice,  as  fascinating  and 
dreamy  as  it  always  is,  beautiful  hot  Florence,  bright  Milan, 
then  the  hills  again,  and  now  we  are  in  Switzerland.  That  is 
all.  There  is  a  lake  outside  this  fourth  story  window  that  is 
prettier  than  anything  in  Pomfret,  and  to-morrow  we  are  going 
over  where  those  clouds  are  lying,  to  see  the  beauties  of  the 
Bernese  mountains.  I  expect  to  see  the  Jungfrau  wink  at 
William  to-morrow  evening.  He  is  as  well  as  a  healthy  cricket. 
Thank  you  for  letting  him  come,  and  I'll  return  him  safe. 
My  love  to  the  babies,  if  they  have  not  forgotten  me,  and  I  am 
just  as  usual. 

Your  affectionate 

P. 


^  In  friendly  letters,  as  in  business  correspondence,  the 
ordinary  conventions  of  letter  forms  should  be  followed. 
Some  persons  neglect  to  introduce  the  Heading  and  the 
Address,  thinking  them  unnecessary;  but  the  same  rea- 
son for  their  use  in  one  kind  of  letter  holds  good  in  an- 
other. It  is  more  informal,  however,  to  place  the  Ad- 
dress at  the  lower  left-hand  corner  of  the  sheet,  rather 
than  at  the  beginning.  The  words  used  in  the  Salutation 
and  the  Complimentary  Close  of  friendly  letters  differ 
from  those  in  business  letters,  and  show  the  intimate 
relations  between  the  correspondents.  The  common 
forms  of  Salutation  are  like  the  following:  My  dear 
Mrs,  Jonesy  Dear  Mr.  Edwards,  My  dear  Cousin,  Dear 


192  LETTER-WRITING 

Gertrude;  and  friendly  letters  close  with  Yours  very 
truly.  Sincerely  yours.  Cordially  yours.  Your  loving  son. 
Your  affectionate  uncle,  and  the  like. 

Besides  conforming  to  the  ordinary  conventions  of 
letter-writing,  a  well-written  letter  obeys  the  rules  of 
good  composition.  In  a  letter  of  reply,  it  is  the  custom 
to  answer  all  questions  first,  each  answer  making  a 
separate  paragraph;  after  which  new  subjects  may  be 
introduced.  Sentences  should  be  complete;  any  ab- 
breviation of  words  or  sentences  suggests  a  discourteous 
haste.  Spelling,  punctuation,  and  capitalization  should 
be  carefully  attended  to.  No  one  has  a  right  to  deal 
shabbily  with  his  friends;  and  mere  politeness  permits 
no  carelessness  because  *'  it 's  only  a  friend." 

EXERCISE 

1.  Imagine  you  are  on  a  visit  to  your  grandfather, 
who  lives  in  another  town,  possibly,  better  still,  in  the 
country.  The  day  of  your  arrival,  write  a  letter  home 
to  your  mother  telling  of  your  trip.  At  the  end  of  a  week, 
write  a  letter  to  your  younger  brother  telling  of  the  things 
he  would  like  to  know.  At  the  end  of  the  second  week, 
write  to  your  chum.  These  letters  will  give  a  continu- 
ous account,  or  diary,  of  your  stay;  but  the  persons  to 
whom  they  are  addressed  will  be  so  different  that  you 
must  vary  your  style  of  writing,  if  your  letters  are  to 
interest  the  people  to  whom  they  are  written. 

2.  You  are  a  member  of  a  school  debating  team. 
Write  to  a  friend  of  yours,  who  has  moved  away,  tell- 
ing him  all  about  your  contest  with  the  team  from  Peter- 
borough. In  this  letter  you  have  an  opportunity  to  use 
all  the  principles  that  govern  good  story-telling. 

3.  You  have  been  very  ill  for  a  number  of  weeks. 
Your  friend  in  New  York  has  not  heard  of  it,  and  you 


SOCIETY  NOTES  19S 

write  him  (or  her).  Tell  him,  in  addition  to  some  brief 
accomit  of  your  illness,  your  plans  for  a  rest  and  an 
outing,  until  you  grow  strong  enough  to  do  something. 

4.  What  is  the  longest  continuous  journey  that  you 
have  ever  taken.?  Write  an  account  of  it.  Pick  out  two 
or  three  funny  incidents,  and  write  them  up;  possibly 
exaggerate  their  humorous  features. 

5.  A  friend  has  been  at  your  home  for  a  week,  and  has 
become  acquainted  with  your  group  of  friends.  After 
he  has  returned  home,  write  a  letter  telling  him  the  in- 
cidents that  would  interest  him.  They  need  not  be  ex- 
traordinary ;  common  things  well  told  will  interest  him. 

6.  There  is  a  little  sister  at  home,  and  scarlet  fever 
has  left  her  almost  deaf.  You  love  her  more  dearly  be- 
cause of  her  misfortune,  and  every  week  you  write  her 
an  entertaining  letter.    Write  what  would  please  her. 

7.  Your  friend  has  moved  to  a  distant  city  and  is  home- 
sick and  discouraged  about  his  school  work.  He  thinks 
of  leaving  school.  Write  him  a  cheering  letter  in  which 
you  show  him  that  the  change  is  exactly  what  he  needed. 
Think  of  all  the  reasons  why  he  should  succeed,  and 
write  so  convincingly  that  he  will  see  you  are  right. 

SOCIETY  NOTES 

Society  notes  all  follow  certain  established  forms .  They 
may  be  either  formal  or  informal.  Formal  notes  are 
written  in  the  third  person  and  do  not  contain  any  of  the 
first  and  second  pronoun  forms.  Informal  notes  use  the 
pronouns  "  I "  and  "  you."  Whether  formal  or  informal, 
an  invitation  should  indicate  clearly  (1)  what  the  func- 
tion is  to  be;  (2)  where  it  is  to  be;  and  (3)  when  it  is  to 
be.  Every  society  invitation  should  be  answered  at 
once.  If  it  is  necessary  to  decline,  a  specific  reason  for 
declining  must  be  given. 


194  LETTER-WRITING 

Below  are  given  examples  of  notes  of  invitation,  ac- 
ceptance, and  regret:  — 

INFORMAL  NOTES 

I 

426  Oakley  Avenue, 
Sept.  22,  1910. 
My  dear  Charles, 

A  number  of  the  old  class  have 
planned  to  go  to  the  lake  for  an  outing  next  Friday. 
We  shall  leave  from  the  Union  Station  at  nine  o'clock  • 
in  the  morning.  Will  you  join  us? 

Sincerely  yours, 

James  Early. 

II 

426  Oakley  Avenue, 

Sept.  22,  1910. 
My  dear  Charles, 

Will  you  give  us  the  pleasure  of 
your  company  at  a  little  lake  party  next  Friday?  A 
number  of  our  old  class  will  be  together,  and  renew 
old  friendships.  We  plan  to  leave  from  the  Union 
Station  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
Cordially  yours, 

James  Early. 

ni 

748  Upton  Avenue, 
Sept.  23,  1910. 
My  dear  James, 

I  have  arranged  to  have  the  day  oflF, 
and  will  join  your  party  at  the  lake.  It's  mighty 
fine  of  you  to  get  together  some  members  of  the 
Class  of  '06. 

Cordially  yours, 

Charles  Eaton. 


SOCIETY  NOTES  105 

IV 

748  Upton  Avenue, 

Sept.  23,  1910. 
My  dear  James, 

I  am  very  sorry  that  I  cannot  join 
you  next  Friday.  You  know  that  this  is  our  busy  sea- 
son; and  the  manager  does  not  wish  me  to  be  away. 
Greet  the  old  boys  for  me. 

Cordially  yours, 

Charles  Eaton. 


May  the  second. 
My  dear  Miss  Elwell, 

Will  you  give  me  the  pleasure 
of  your  company  at  the  Junior  party  to  be  given  at 
Mr.  Jones's  home,  a  week  froiii  Friday  evening? 
Very  truly  yours, 

Stanley  Benjamin. 

VI 

1423  Alton  Street, 

May  third. 
My  dear  Mr.  Benjamin, 

It  will  give  me  pleasure  to 
attend  the  Junior  party  with  you,  on  Friday  evening, 
at  the  home  of  Mr.  Jones. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Mary  Elwell. 

vn 

1423  Alton  Street, 

May  third. 
My  dear  Mr.  Benjamin, 

I  regret  that  a  previous  en- 
gagement, which  I  cannot  break,  will  not  permit  me 
to  attend  the  Junior  party  with  you,  on  Friday  even- 
ning,  at  the  home  of  Mr.  Jones. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Mary  Elwell. 


196  LETTER-WRITING 

FORMAL  NOTES 

I 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  re- 
quest the  pleasure  of  Mr. 
Wilmot's  company  at  din- 
ner Tuesday  evening,  No- 
vember fourth,  at  half  past 
seven. 
427  Oakland  Avenue. 

II 

Mr.  Wilmot  accepts  with  pleas- 
ure the  kind  invitation  to  dine  with 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  on  Tuesday 
evening,    November   the   fourth. 

Ill 

Mr.  Wilmot  regrets  that  absence 
from  the  city  will  prevent  his  ac- 
ceptance of  the  kind  invitation 
to  dine  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James 
on  Tuesday  evening,  November 
the  fourth. 

GENERAL  EXERCISE 

1.  Write  a  short  letter  to  a  friend  thanking  him  (or 
her)  for  the  gifts  he  has  sent  you,  which  you  appre- 
ciate very  much. 

2.  You  bought  a  half-dozen  pairs  of  gloves  recently 
at  a  reliable  shop,  in  a  near  city.  Each  pair  of  gloves,  as 
you  wear  it,  rips  or  tears  easily,  and  in  other  ways 
shows  that  it  is  defective.  Write  a  polite  letter  to  the 
business  firm  stating  the  case  cleariy,  and  asking  what 
they  are  willing  to  do  about  it. 

3.  Write  the  firm's  answer  to  the  above  letter  of  com- 
plaint. 


GENERAL  EXERCISE  197 

4.  Reply  to  an  advertisement  offering  an  oflfice  posi- 
tion. As  the  position  promises  steady  promotion  and 
seems  very  desirable,  you  wish  to  obtain  it.  Write  ask- 
ing for  further  particulars,  and  stating  your  qualifica- 
tions and  references. 

5.  Write  a  letter  to  a  dear  old  lady  (or  gentleman) 
who  has  been  very  kind  to  you,  congratulating  her 
upon  having  reached  her  seventieth  birthday. 

6.  Write  a  formal  invitation,  asking  your  friend  to  a 
birthday  dinner  party. 

7.  Write  a  formal  acceptance  to  the  above. 

8.  Your  mother  is  ill  and  has  asked  you  to  write  for 
her  an  excuse  for  your  absence  from  school.  Write  it  as  if 
she  dictated  it.  Sign  it  with  her  name,  with  your  initials 
underneath  to  show  that  you  wrote  it  for  another. 

9.  Write  a  newsy  letter  to  your  friend  who  is  spending 
a  few  weeks  in  the  country.  Give  all  the  neighborhood 
affairs  and  your  own  as  well.  Write  as  naturally  as 
possible,  as  if  you  were  talking  to  him. 

10.  Imagine  yourself  away  at  school.  Write  a  letter 
home  to  your  father  or  mother. 

11.  Write  an  advertisement  for  the  return  of  a  valu- 
able puppy,  which  has  either  strayed  away  or  been  stolen. 

12.  Invite  a  friend  to  visit  you.  Tell  him  how  to  reach 
you;  what  you  can  offer  in  the  way  of  pleasure  as  an  in- 
ducement to  come;  and  for  what  length  of  time  you 
wish  him  to  stay. 

13.  Write  to  a  publisher  ordering  several  magazines 
in  a  club.  State  exactly  what  ones  you  want;  the  ad- 
dress, or  addresses,  to  which  they  are  to  be  sent;  when 
the  subscription  year  is  to  begin;  and  in  what  form  you 
are  sending  the  amount  of  money  due  for  them. 

14.  Your  friend  has  been  ill  and  is  now  convalescent 
at  home,  or  at  the  hospital.    Write  a  short,  cheerful 


198  LETTER-WRITING 

letter,  such  as  you  would  like  to  receive  under  similar 
circumstances. 

1 5 .  Write  a  letter  introducing  your  friend  who  is  about 
to  move  to  another  city  to  a  friend  already  living  there. 
You  want  them  to  meet  and  become  friends. 

16.  Recommend  a  friend  for  a  position  with  a  business 
firm,  a  member  of  which  you  know  personally  and  with 
whom  you  feel  that  your  endorsement  would  carry  some 
influence. 

17.  Write  a  letter  to  your  foreign  cousin  whom  you 
have  never  seen.  Tell  him  what  you  think  would  inter- 
est him  in  you  and  your  surroundings.  Show  also  a 
desire  to  learn  more  of  him. 

18.  Your  friend's  father  (or  mother)  has  just  died. 
The  friend  until  recently  lived  near  you.  Write  a  brief 
letter  expressing  your  sympathy  and  affection. 

19.  Write  to  your  grocer  ordering  a  number  of  articles 
of  food.  Consult  a  newspaper  so  that  you  will  be  able 
to  designate  clearly  the  kind  and  grade  of  article  you 
wish,  and  the  quoted  market  price.  Keep  each  article 
separate  in  bill  form.  State  how  you  wish  the  goods  de- 
livered, and  how  you  will  make  payment. 

FOLDING  A  LETTER 

Custom  has  established  that  letters  shall  be  folded  in 
definite  ways.  A  sheet  of  letter  size,  83^2  by  11  inches, 
should  be  folded  first  from  the  bottom  toward  the  top, 
so  that  the  lower  edge  will  come  a  quarter  or  a  half  an 
inch  below  the  upper  edge.  (This  is  done  for  ease  in 
unfolding.)  Then  a  little  less  than  one  third  of  the  width 
of  the  sheet  should  be  folded  from  the  right  side  toward 
the  left.  Next  the  left-hand  edge  should  be  folded  toward 
the  right  so  that  it  projects  slightly  beyond  the  fold. 
(This  also  is  done  for  ease  in  unfolding.)   The  letter  is 


THE  SUPERSCRIPTION 


199 


then  ready  for  the  envelope.  Take  the  envelope  in  the 
left  hand  with  the  addressed  side  from  you  and  take  up 
with  the  right  hand  the  letter  as  it  lies  folded  on  the 
desk,  and  insert  in  the  envelope. 

When  the  sheet  is  a  short  letter  size,  e.g.,  83/^  by  7 
inches,  it  should  be  folded  exactly  as  above,  except  that 
the  first  fold  should  be  only  so  far  as  to  make  the  length 
of  the  folded  letter  a  Uttle  less  than  the  length  of  the 
envelope.  If  the  sheet  is  of  note  paper,  it  should  be 
folded  but  once,  from  the  bottom  toward  the  top.  The 
size  of  the  envelope  should  match  the  paper  so  folded. 

THE  SUPERSCRIPTION 


Mr.L. 

G.  Cook, 

32  Orlin  Av., 

Spokane 

> 

Personal. 

Wash. 

The  Superscription  is  the  address  written  upon  the 
envelope;  it  is  an  exact  copy  of  the  complete  address 
in  the  letter.  It  contains  on  the  first  line  the  name  of  the 
person  to  whom  the  letter  is  to  go;  on  the  second,  the 
house  number  and  the  name  of  the  street;  on  the  third, 
the  city  and  the  state;  or  on  the  third,  the  city,  and  on 
the  fourth,  the  state.  If  the  place  is  small,  no  street  num- 
ber will  be  given;  then  the  name  of  the  town  is  on  the  sec- 
ond line,  the  county  may  be  on  the  third  line,  and  the 
state  on  the  last. 


200 


LETTER-WRITING 


If  a  person  wishes  his  mail  returned  to  him  when  not 
delivered,  without  going  to  the  Dead  Letter  OflBce,  he 
should  place  his  own  name  and  address  in  the  upper 
left-hand  corner  of  the  envelope.  In  the  lower  left- 
hand  corner  may  be  written  R.  F.  D.,  for  "  rural  free 
delivery  ";  Forward,  meaning  that  the  postmaster  is 
to  forward  the  letter  to  the  correct  address,  if  the  person 
has  moved;  or  Personal,  meaning  that  the  letter  is  to  be 
opened  only  by  the  person  to  whom  it  is  addressed. 

Government  officials  prefer  that  the  name  of  the  state 
be  written  in  full  rather  than  abbreviated.  If,  however, 
people  will  use  abbreviations,  they  should  use  those 
which  the  Government  has  authorized. 


Alabama 

Ala. 

Montana 

Mont. 

Arizona 

Ariz. 

Nebraska 

Nebr. 

Arkansas 

Ark. 

Nevada 

Nev. 

California 

Cal. 

New  Hampshire 

N.  H. 

Colorado 

Colo. 

New  Jersey 

N.J. 

Connecticut 

Conn. 

New  Mexico 

N.Mex 

Delaware 

Del. 

New  York 

N.  Y. 

District  of 

North  Carolina 

N.  C. 

Columbia 

D.  C. 

North  Dakota 

N.  Dak. 

Florida 

Fla. 

Oklahoma 

Okla. 

Georgia 

Ga. 

Pennsylvania 

Penn. 

Illinois 

m. 

Porto  Rico 

P.R. 

Indiana 

Ind. 

Rhode  Island 

R.L 

Indian  Territory 

Ind.  T. 

South  Carolina 

S.  C. 

Kansas 

Kans. 

South  Dakota 

S.  Dak. 

Kentucky 

Ky. 

Tennessee 

Tenn. 

Louisiana 

La. 

Texas 

Tex. 

Maryland 

Md. 

Vermont 

Vt. 

Massachusetts 

Mass. 

Virginia 

Va. 

Michigan 

Mich. 

Washington 

Wa^h. 

Minnesota 

Minn. 

West  Virginia 

W.Va. 

Mississippi 

Miss. 

W^isconsin 

Wis. 

Missouri 

Mo. 

Wyoming 

Wyo. 

The  following  should  not  be  abbreviated:  Alaska, 


THE  SUPERSCRIPTION  201 

Guam,  Hawaii,  Idaho,  Iowa,  Maine,  Ohio,  Oregon, 
Samoa,  Utah. 

Use,  if  preferred,  St  for  "  Street,"  Av.  or  Ave,  for 
"  Avenue,"  and  Co.  for  "  County." 

The  punctuation  of  the  Superscription  should  be  the 
same  as  the  punctuation  of  the  address.  Commas  sepa- 
rate the  different  parts  that  make  up  the  address,  and 
a  period  closes  the  last  line.  Every  abbreviation  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  period,  even  where  a  comma  also  is  needed; 
as,  2103  Hennepin  Av.,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Recently  the  omission  of  commas  from  the  Super- 
scription has  become  common  among  business  men. 
This  omission  is  never  allowable  in  the  address  in  the 
letter,  only  in  the  Superscription,  and  only  in  the  Super- 
scription of  business  letters. 

To  facilitate  the  rapid  handling  of  mail  by  clerks, 
and  to  insure  the  prompt  delivery  of  letters,  the  Super- 
scription should  be  written  very  distinctly.  Very  little 
mail  is  miscarried,  when  clearly  addressed;  great  quan- 
tities go  astray  every  day  because  of  incomplete  or 
illegible  Superscription. 


CHAPTER  V 

FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE  (Continued) 

EXPOSITION 

So  far  we  have  studied  discourse  that  deals  with 
things :  things  active,  doing  something,  considered  under 
the  head  of  Narration;  and  things  at  rest,  pictured, 
under  the  head  of  Description.  Now  we  come  to  Ex- 
position, which  deals  with  ideas,  either  separately  or 
in  combination.  Instead  of  describing,  for  example,  Mr. 
Smith's  lame  horse,  exposition  would  treat  of  the 
general  term,  horses  —  any  horse,  every  horse.  The 
Great  Stone  Face  is  a  narrative,  the  purpose  of  which  is 
to  teach  the  value  of  lofty  ideals  by  telling  how  a  youth 
may  grow  to  be  strong  and  helpful  by  holding  ever  be- 
fore himself  the  ideal  of  a  truly  noble  man;  but  "The 
Value  of  Lofty  Ideals  "  is  a  subject  for  exposition.  Ex- 
position treats  of  abstract  ideas,  either  general  terms, 
Ifke  horse,  man,  tree;  or  propositions,  such  as  this: 
**  A  lofty  ideal  invites  nobility  of  character."  Expo- 
sition, then,  is  explanation  —  explanation  either  of  a 
word  or  of  a  proposition. 

That  general  propositions  are  harder  to  get  hold  of 
than  concrete  facts  is  readily  apparent  from  the  first 
reading  of  an  author  like  Emerson  or  Ruskin.  To  a  young 
person,  their  essays  often  mean  but  little.  Yet  when  he 
puts  in  the  place  of  the  general  terms  they  use  some 
specific  examples,  and  so  sees  that  the  statements  are 
true,  the  general  propositions  have  a  mine  of  meaning, 
and  "  the  sense  of  the  author  is  as  broad  as  the  world." 


EXPOSITION  203 

This  line  from  Lowell  may  be  but  little  suggestive  at 
first : — 

Virtue  treads  paths  that  end  not  in  the  grave. 

Yet  when  the  reader  substitutes  for  "  Virtue  "  the  names 
of  persons  whose  manhood  and  nobility  have  made 
them  household  words,  such  as  Washington  and  Lin- 
coln, he  knows  that  the  line  is  true;  he  knows  that  these 
American  noblemen  still  live  in  the  hearts  of  this 
people;  that  a  life  beyond  the  grave  is  the  reward  granted 
not  only  to  Lincoln  and  Washington,  but  to  every  man, 
in  return  for  virtue. 

As,  then,  abstract  ideas  are  more  diflScult  to  grasp 
than  concrete  facts,  so  exposition  has  peculiar  diffi- 
culties, greater  than  any  found  in  narration  and  descrip- 
tion. It  is  not  so  hard  to  tell  what  belongs  in  a  story; 
the  events  are  all  distinct.  Nor  is  it  so  difficult  to  know 
what  to  include  in  a  description;  one  can  look  and  see. 
In  exposition  this  is  not  so.  When  one  says  that  the 
material  should  be  selected  according  to  the  familiar 
law  of  Unity,  one  has  given  the  guiding  principle.  Yet 
the  real  difficulty  is  still  before  the  author :  the  difficulty 
is  to  decide  how  to  classify  such  elusive  matter  as  ab- 
stract ideas.  In  most  minds  such  ideas  do  not  have  dis- 
tinct limits:  it  is  hard  to  tell  where  the  idea  stops.  And 
often  ideas  that  we  have  marked  "  accepted  "  because 
at  first  they  seemed  all  right,  must,  upon  reexamina- 
tion, be  "  rejected,"  as  not  belonging  to  this  particular 
phase  of  the  subject.  In  writing  of  "  The  Uses  of  Coal," 
it  is  easy  to  wander  over  an  indistinct  boundary  and 
to  make  a  study  of  "  Our  Unhmited  Coal  Fields,"  a  topic 
that  is  not  included  under  "  The  Uses  of  Coal," 

Since  abstract  ideas  are  more  or  less  indistinct,  not 
only  is  it  difficult  to  keep  exactly  to  the  limits  of  the 
subject,  but  there  is  no  definite  guide  to  the  Arrange- 


r 


204  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

ment  of  matter,  such  as  we  found  in  narration.  There 
a  sequence  of  time  was  an  almost  certain  rule;  here  the 
writer  must  study  carefully  how  to  arrange  his  ideas 
in  some  effective  form.  As  discourse  comes  to  deal  more 
with  general  ideas,  the  difficulties  are  bound  to  in- 
crease; but  these  difficulties  are  not  due  to  any  new 
principles  of  structure.  To  examine  abstract  ideas  — 
the  matter  used  in  this  form  of  discourse  —  so  thoroughly 
that  they  may  be  accurately  and  definitely  known  in 
their  relation  to  what  has  gone  before  and  in  their  bear- 
ing upon  what  may  follow,  —  this  is  the  seat  of  the  diffi- 
culty in  exposition. 

EXERCISE 

Write  a  clear  explanation  of  how  any  one  of  the  fol- 
lowing things  is  done.  Assume  that  your  reader  is  not 
informed  at  all,  and  that  each  step  in  the  process  must 
be  made  clear.  If  you  prefer  some  other  subject  that 
has  suggested  itself  to  you,  use  it  instead  of  one  of  these. 

1.  The  making  of  a  loaf  of  bread. 

2.  How  to  raise  celery  (corn,  tomatoes,  potatoes). 
S.  The  way  to  obtain  a  money  order. 

4.  A  good  plan  for  making  a  kite,  and  how  to  fly  it. 

5.  Dish-washing  may  be  made  a  pleasant  task. 

6.  The  way  a  tile  floor  is  laid. 

7.  How  to  learn  to  swim. 

8.  The  process  of  securing  one's  own  library  card  and  of 
drawing  a  book  from  the  library. 

9.  The  care  of  young  turkeys. 

10.  How  to  build  and  care  for  a  furnace  fire. 

METHODS  OF  EXPLANATION 

Exposition  may  conveniently  be  classified  into  (1)  ex- 
position of  a  term,  called  definition,  and  (2)  exposition 
of  a  proposition.  And  this  latter,  explaining  a  proposi- 
tion, is  what  is  generally  meant  by  the  word  exposition. 


METHODS  OF  EXPLANATION  205 

Now  what  are  the  methods  of  explaining  a  proposition? 

Use  of  details.  First,  a  common  way  of  explaining  a 
proposition  is  to  go  into  details  about  it.  This  method 
is  found  in  all  kinds  of  discourse.  It  originates  from 
the  fact  that  persons  usually  give  the  general  truth  first 
and  follow  this  statement  with  the  details,  or  the  particu- 
lars. Whether  the  story-teller  begins  by  saying,  "  Now, 
I'll  tell  you  just  how  I  happened  to  be  there";  or  the 
traveler  writes,  "From  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  one  has 
all  about  him  magnificent  views  ";  or  the  preacher 
opens  his  sermon  with,  "  There  are  many  things  to  be 
grateful  for  on  this  Thanksgiving  Day,"  —  in  each  case 
the  general  statement  of  the  opening  sentence  will 
be  followed  by  sentences  going  into  detail.  In  exposi- 
tion enough  details  should  be  given  to  furnish  a  reason- 
able explanation  of  the  proposition.  In  the  examples 
below,  the  general  statement,  or  the  topic  sentence,  is 
printed  in  italics,  and  the  details  that  establish  this 
general  proposition  follow :  — 

1.  All  was  now  bustle  and  hubbub  in  the  late  quiet  schoolroom. 
The  scholars  were  hurried  through  their  lessons,  with- 
out stopping  at  trifles;  those  who  were  nimble  skipped 
over  half  with  impunity,  and  those  who  were  tardy 
had  a  smart  application  now  and  then  in  the  rear,  to 
quicken  their  speed,  or  to  help  them  over  a  tall  word. 
Books  were  flung  aside  without  being  put  away  on  the 
shelves,  inkstands  were  overturned,  benches  thrown 
down,  and  the  whole  school  was  turned  loose  an  hour  be- 
fore the  usual  time,  bursting  forth  like  a  legion  of  young 
imps,  yelping  and  racketing  about  the  green,  in  joy  at 
their  early  emancipation.  —  Irving. 

2.  The  enemies  of  the  Parliament,  indeed,  rarely  choose 
to  take  issue  on  the  great  points  of  the  question.  They 
content  themselves  with  exposing  some  of  the  crimes  and 
/o//ie5  to  which  public  commotions  necessarily  give  birth. 
They  bewail  the  unmerited  fate  of  Strafford.  They  exe- 


206  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

crate  the  lawless  violence  of  the  army.  They  laugh  at 
the  scriptural  names  of  the  preachers.  Major-generals 
fleecing  their  districts;  soldiers  reveling  on  the  spoils  of 
a  ruined  peasantry;  upstarts,  enriched  by  the  public 
plunder,  taking  possession  of  the  hospitable  firesides  and 
hereditary  trees  of  the  old  gentry;  boys  smashing  the 
beautiful  windows  of  cathedrals;  Fifth-monarchy  men 
shouting  for  King  Jesus;  agitators  lecturing  from  the 
tops  of  tubs  on  the  fate  of  Agag,  —  all  these,  thej^  tell 
us,  were  the   offspring  of  the  Great  Rebellion.  —  Ma- 

CAULAY. 

Macaulay,  writing  of  the  "  muster-rolls  of  names  " 
which  Milton  uses  in  Paradise  LosU  wrote  this  para- 
graph of  details :  — 

3.  They  are  charmed  names.  Every  one  of  them  is  the  first 
link  in  a  long  chain  of  associated  ideas.  Like  the  dwell- 
ing-place of  our  infancy  revisited  in  manhood,  like  the 
song  of  our  country  heard  in  a  strange  land,  they  pro- 
duce upon  us  an  effect  wholly  independent  of  their  in- 
trinsic value.  One  transports  us  back  to  a  remote  period 
of  history.  Another  places  us  among  the  novel  scenes 
and  manners  of  a  distant  region.  A  third  evokes  all  the 
dear  classical  recollections  of  childhood,  —  the  school- 
room, the  dog-eared  Virgil,  the  holiday,  and  the  prize. 
A  fourth  brings  before  us  the  splendid  phantoms  of 
chivalrous  romance,  the  trophied  lists,  the  embroidered 
housings,  the  quaint  devices,  the  haunted  forests,  the 
enchanted  gardens,  the  achievements  of  enamoured 
knights,  and  the  smiles  of  rescued  princesses. 

EXERCISE 

Write  a  single  paragraph  on  one  of  the  following  topics, 
including  details  enough  to  make  the  general  proposi- 
tion clear  to  any  one  who  has  not  thought  about  the  sub- 
ject. Use  an  important  detail  to  close  the  paragraph. 

1.  Certain  animals  possess  almost  human  intelligence. 

2.  Travel  is  a  part  of  one's  education. 


METHODS  OF  EXPLANATION  207 

3.  Some  slang  words  and  phrases  may  become  a  part  of  our 
language. 

4.  We  enjoy  many  conveniences  our  ancestors  never  knew. 

5.  A  child  can  do  much  that  is  useful. 

6.  Not  all  rich  men  are  selfish. 

7.  I  will  tell  you  of  the  habits  of  some  birds  I  know. 

Use  of  the  obverse.  Second,  a  proposition  may  be 
explained  by  telling  what  it  is  not;  that  is,  by  giving 
the  obverse.  At  times  this  method  is  as  valuable  as  tell- 
ing what  a  thing  is.  The  obverse  statement  usually  fol- 
lows a  positive  statement,  and  again  it  is  followed  by 
the  affirmative:  that  is,  first,  what  it  is;  second,  what 
it  is  not;  and  last,  again  what  it  is.  The  first  statement 
is  sometimes  omitted;  then  the  paragraph  begins  with 
the  obverse  statement.  In  the  first  example  from  Ma- 
caulay  the  first  two  sentences  are  affirmative;  the  next 
four  are  the  obverse;  and  the  closing  sentences  are  again 
affirmative. 

1.  The  Spirits  of  Milton  are  unlike  those  of  almost  all  other 
writers.  His  Fiends,  in  particular,  are  wonderful  creations. 
They  are  not  metaphysical  abstractions.  They  are  not 
wicked  men.  They  are  not  ugly  beasts.  They  have  no 
horns,  no  tails,  none  of  the  fee-fa-fum  of  Tasso  and  Klop- 
stock.  They  have  just  enough  in  common  with  human 
nature  to  be  intelligible  to  human  beings.  Their  charac- 
ters are,  like  their  forms,  marked  by  a  certain  dim  re- 
semblance to  those  of  men,  but  exaggerated  to  gigantic 
dimensions,  and  veiled  in  mysterious  gloom. — Macaulay. 

2.  Milton  did  not  strictly  belong  to  any  of  the  classes  which 
we  have  described.  He  was  not  a  Puritan.  He  was  not 
a  free-thinker.  He  was  not  a  Royalist.  In  his  character 
the  noblest  qualities  of  every  party  were  combined  in 
harmonious  union.  From  the  Parliament  and  from  the 
court,  from  the  conventicle  and  from  the  Gothic  cloister, 
from  the  gloomy  and  sepulchral  circles  of  the  Roundheads, 
and  from  the  Christmas  revel  of  the  hospitable  Cavalier, 
his  nature  selected  and  drew  to  itself  whatever  was  great 


208  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

and  good,  while  it  rejected  all  the  base  and  pernicious 
ingredients  by  which  those  finer  elements  were  defiled.  — 
Macaulay. 

EXERCISE 

Write  a  single  paragraph  on  one  of  these  topics. 
After  the  first  sentence,  introduce  at  least  three  sen- 
tences stating  the  obverse.  Follow  these  by  some  sen- 
tences that  shall  re-state  the  proposition  in  the  afl&rma- 
tive.  Have  a  clear,  strong  sentence  at  the  end. 

1.  The  common  idea  of  success  is  not  always  the  true  one. 

2.  Not  all  new  fashions  in  dress  are  to  be  adopted. 

3.  I  visited  to-day  a  children's  public  playground. 

4.  I  remember  my  sensations  when  I  was  first  told  I  had  won 
the  prize. 

5.  There  seemed  to  be  no  change  in when  I  revisited 

the  place. 

6.  I  had  in  mind  a  garden  I  would  possess. 

Use  of  comparison.  Third,  a  thing  may  be  explained 
by  telling  what  it  is  like,  or  what  it  is  not  like.  This  is 
called  the  method  of  comparison.  It  is  often  the  clearest 
way  by  which  to  describe  or  to  explain.  Sometimes 
one  thing  is  likened  to  a  number  of  things,  drawing 
from  each  a  quality  that  more  definitely  pictures  it; 
or  it  may  be  compared  to  but  one,  and  the  likeness  may 
be  followed  out  as  far  as  it  helps  the  reader  to  understand 
the  subject.  Telling  what  a  thing,  or  a  proposition,  does 
not  resemble,  is  a  means  of  excluding  from  the  compar- 
ison qualities  that  might  otherwise  be  confusing. 

It  is  the  character  of  such  revolutions  that  we  always  see 
the  worst  of  them  at  first.  Till  men  have  been  some  time  free, 
they  know  not  how  to  use  their  freedom.  The  natives  of  wine 
countries  are  generally  sober.  In  climates  where  wine  is  a 
rarity  intemperance  abounds.  A  newly  liberated  people  may 
be  compared  to  a  northern  army  encamped  on  the  Rhine  or 
the  Xeres.   It  is  said  that,  when  soldiers  in  such  a  situation 


METHODS  OF  EXPLANATION  209 

first  find  themselves  able  to  indulge  without  restraint  in  such 
a  rare  and  expensive  luxury,  nothing  is  to  be  seen  but  intoxi- 
cation. Soon,  however,  plenty  teaches  discretion;  and,  after 
wine  has  been  for  a  few  months  their  daily  fare,  they  become 
more  temperate  than  they  had  been  in  their  own  country. 
In  the  same  manner,  the  final  and  permanent  fruits  of  liberty 
are  wisdom,  moderation,  and  mercy.  Its  immediate  eflFects 
are  often  atrocious  crimes,  conflicting  errors,  skepticism  on 
points  the  most  clear,  dogmatism  on  points  the  most  mysteri- 
ous. —  Macaulay. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Write  an  explanation  of  the  origin  of  springs, 
making  use  of  a  simple  comparison  to  make  it  clear. 
If  it  would  help,  use  a  simple  drawing. 

2.  It  was  not  until  1840  that  cook-stoves  took  the 
place  of  fire-places.  Write  an  explanation  of  a  very 
simple  cook-stove,  using  comparisons. 

3.  Had  you  been  living  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson 
in  1807,  you  would  have  been  astonished  to  see  a  boat 
steaming  up  the  river.  Explain  the  working  of  this 
boat  to  a  boy  living  in  Philadelphia  at  that  time.  You 
will  naturally  use  some  comparisons. 

4.  There  are  three  things  that  one  thinks  of  from 
which  ideas  have  been  drawn  in  the  construction  of  an 
aeroplane.  Write  an  explanation  of  the  working  prin- 
ciple of  this  modern  machine  by  use  of  comparisons. 

5.  Here  is  a  comparison  often  made:  The  green  hills 
far  away  are  like  our  unattained  desires.  The  points 
of  resemblance  are  mentioned  below :  — 

a.  The  hills.  Our  desires. 

6.  The  hills  appear  clothed  The  wished-for  object  seems 

in  green.  ever  fresh,  ever  beautiful. 

c.  We  reach  the  hills,  to  find  We  gain  our  desires,  and  find 

rocks  and  barren  stretches  that  the  promised  good  is 

among  the  green.  not     so     beautiful    as    it 

seemed. 


210  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

Think  over  this  comparison  long  and  carefully.  It 
will  be  better  for  you  to  say  all  that  you  wish  to  of 
the  fascinating  beauty  of  the  green  hills  far  away  be- 
fore you  undertake  to  introduce  the  comparison.  Then 
say  something  that  will  lead  into  the  second  part;  such 
as,  "  How  they  resemble  our  unattained  desires!  **  or 
"  So  I  think,"  etc. 

6.  Choose  any  of  the  following  topics  and  make  a 
plan  for  writing  a  paragraph.  Submit  both  the  plan 
and  the  paragraph  for  your  exercise. 

1.  I  saw  a  lily  bud  unfold.  (Liken  to  the  development  of  a 
beautiful  character.) 

2.  It  is  the  rock  that  makes  the  pilot.  (What  does  this  mean 
when  applied  to  life?) 

S.  Sleep  came  to  close  out  the  world  and  its  thousand  cares. 
}       (Liken  to  the  shutting  of  a  roll-top  desk.) 

4.  I  was  like  one  who  had  suddenly  come  upon  an  oasis  in 
the  panting  sterility  of  the  desert.  (What  does  this  mean?) 

5.  Our  brains  are  seventy-year  clocks.  The  Angel  of  Life 
winds  them  up  once  for  all,  then  closes  the  case,  and  gives 
the  key  into  the  hand  of  the  Angel  of  the  Resurrection. 

Use  of  repetition.  Last,  a  proposition  may  be  ex- 
plained by  repetition  of  the  thou^t  in  some  other 
form.  This  is  most"  frequently  used  when  the  words 
employed  to  state  the  proposition  are  difficult  to  un- 
derstand, or  when  the  thought  itself  contains  some 
difficulties,  and  must  be  stated  in  several  different 
ways  to  make  it  clear.  Simply  to  repeat  a  thought  in 
other  words  would  generally  be  useless;  but  to  re- 
peat it  so  that  with  each  repetition  the  thought  be- 
comes clearer  or  broader  in  its  application  is  valuable 
in  explaining  a  subject.  For  example,  if  the  general 
proposition  should  be,  (1)  "  A  strong  partisan  may  not 
be  a  good  citizen,"  some  young  reader  might  not 
know  what  was  meant  by  the  word  "  partisan."    This 


METHODS  OF  EXPLANATION  211 

thought,  then,  could  be  repeated  in  the  following  form : 
(2)  "  Any  man  that  sticks  firmly  to  his  party  may  be 
working  a  real  injury  to  the  great  country  that  he 
loves."  Following  this  sentence,  the  author  might  write 
another,  even  more  general  than  the  first,  to  explain 
the  first;  as,  (3)  **  Indeed,  one  can  easily  conceive  a 
body  of  men,  so  devoted  to  a  theory,  beautiful  though  it 
may  be  in  many  respects,  that  they  stand  in  the  way 
of  the  world's  progress."  In  these  sentences,  "  parti- 
san "  is  repeated  in  the  phrases,  "  a  man  that  sticks 
firmly  to  his  party,"  and  *'  a  body  of  men  devoted  to 
a  theory."  So  the  predicate,  '*  may  not  be  a  good  citi- 
zen," is  explained  by  "  may  be  working  an  injury  to  the 
great  country  that  he  loves  ";  and  this  is  broadened  to 
include  the  whole  world  in  the  phrase,  "  stand  in  the 
way  of  the  world's  progress."  In  the  three  sentences  is 
illustrated  the  method  of  repetition.  The  second  sentence 
repeats  the  first  in  a  more  concrete  and  si>ecific  manner; 
while  the  third  makes  the  same  statement  in  a  more 
general  way  than  the  first.  In  either  case  of  repetition, 
the  first  general  proposition  has  been  made  clearer  to 
the  reader  by  the  restatement. 

In  the  following  illustrations  of  paragraphs  of  repe- 
tition, notice  how  easily  the  thought  of  the  first  sentence 
is  repeated  in  each  following  sentence,  yet  is  never  quite 
the  same :  — 

1.  Like  the  ocean  of  water,  the  ocean  of  air  knows  no  repose 
or  stagnation.  What  we  call  stillness  on  the  most  sultry 
of  summer  days  does  not  mean  absolute  stillness.  Though 
not  enough  wind  may  stir  to  lift  a  feather,  yet  the  air  is 
in  ceaseless  motion,  to  and  fro,  hither  and  thither.  The 
whole  atmosphere  is  a  vast  and  complicated  system  of 
air-currents,  and  each  lesser  portion  of  air  has  its  own  lesser 
circulation.  You  cannot  lift  your  hand  without  causing  a 
tiny  breeze;  you  cannot  turn  a  wheel  without  making  a 


212  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

minute  whirlwind;  and  every  separate  air-movement 
draws  other  movements  in  its  train.  —  Agnes  Giberne. 
2.  The  English,  in  j act,  are  strongly  gifted  with  the  rural  feeling. 
They  possess  a  quick  sensibiHty  to  the  beauties  of  nature, 
and  a  keen  rehsh  for  the  pleasures  and  employments  of 
the  country.  This  passion  seems  inherent  in  them.  Even 
the  inhabitants  of  cities,  born  and  brought  up  among  brick 
walls  and  bustling  streets,  enter  with  facility  into  rural 
habits,  and  evince  a  tact  for  rural  occupation.  The  mer- 
chant has  his  snug  retreat  in  the  vicinity  of  the  metro- 
polis, where  he  often  displays  as  much  pride  and  zeal  in 
the  cultivation  of  his  flower-garden,  and  the  maturing  of 
his  fruits,  as  he  does  in  the  conduct  of  his  business,  and 
the  success  of  a  commercial  enterprise.  Even  those  less 
fortunate  individuals  who  are  doomed  to  pass  their  lives 
in  the  midst  of  din  and  traffic,  contrive  to  have  something 
that  shall  remind  them  of  the  green  aspect  of  nature.  In 
the  most  dark  and  dingy  quarters  of  the  city,  the  drawing- 
room  window  resembles  frequently  a  bank  of  flowers; 
every  spot  capable  of  vegetation  has  its  grass-plot  and 
flower-bed;  and  every  square  its  mimic  park,  laid  out  with 
picturesque  taste,  and  gleaming  with  refreshing  verdure. 
—  Irving. 

EXERCISE 

Write  a  paragraph  on  one  of  the  following  topics. 
Have  at  least  three  sentences  repeating  in  slightly 
changed  form  the  first  statement.  Close  with  a  good 
sentence. 

1.  Genius  is  the  capacity  for  taking  infinite  pains. 

2.  The  dictionary  is  the  most  fruitful  and  interesting  of  books. 

3.  Kindness  makes  friends. 

4.  Science  is  ever  advancing. 

5.  A  merciful  man  is  merciful  to  his  beast. 

6.  The  world  is  growing  wiser. 

Summary.  These,  then,  are  the  four  commonest  ways 
of  explaining  a  proposition:  by  details,  by  the  obverse, 
by  comparison,  and  by  repetition.    Few  paragraphs. 


METHODS  OF  EXPLANATION  218 

however,  or  essays  are  ever  wholly  written  by  any 
single  method.  Most  paragraphs  combine  two  or  more 
methods  of  development.  Examples  of  such  are  found 
everywhere. 

EXERCISE 

Below  is  a  group  of  paragraphs  illustrating  the  four 
methods  of  exposition.  Study  each  carefully.  First, 
find  the  topic  sentence  of  the  paragraph.  Is  it  always 
the  first  sentence  of  the  paragraph?  Second,  tell  by 
what  method,  or  methods,  the  topic  has  been  explained. 
Third,  note  very  carefully  the  last  sentence  of  each 
paragraph.  Does  it  repeat  the  topic  sentence?  Is  it 
strong?  What  relation  has  it  to  the  opening  sentence? 

1.  It  is  easy  to  name  the  qualities  of  Dickens's  genius,  so 
salient  are  they,  and  so  omnipresent.  A  wonderful  vigor, 
a  faculty  for  graphic  description  which  runs  parallel  with 
his  minute  observation,  sympathies  which  are  always 
tenderly  alive,  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  a  keen  sense  of 
pathos,  a  fertile  imagination,  and  a  facile  style,  —  thus, 
perhaps,  we  may  sum  them  up.  —  Newcomer. 

2.  Our  studies  here  will  be  of  life,  and  chiefly  of  those  minuter 
or  obscurer  forms  which  seldom  attract  attention.  In  the 
air  we  breathe,  in  the  water  we  drink,  in  the  earth  we 
tread  on,  life  is  everywhere.  Nature  Hves:  every  pore  is 
bursting  with  life;  every  death  is  only  a  new  birth,  every 
grave  a  cradle.  And  of  this  we  know  so  little,  think  so 
little !  Around  us,  above  us,  beneath  us,  that  great  mystic 
drama  of  creation  is  being  enacted,  and  we  will  not  even 
consent  to  be  spectators!  Unless  animals  are  obviously 
useful  or  obviously  hurtful  to  us,  we  disregard  them.  Yet 
they  are  not  alien,  but  akin.  The  life  that  stirs  within  us 
stirs  within  them.  We  are  all  "parts  of  one  transcendent 
whole."  The  scales  fall  from  our  eyes  when  we  think  of 
this;  it  is  as  if  a  new  sense  had  been  vouchsafed  to  us, 
and  we  learn  to  look  at  Nature  with  a  more  intimate  and 
personal  love.  —  Lewes. 


214  FOKMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

3.  Has  not  the  man  who  has  worked  for  the  money  a  right 
to  use  it  as  best  he  can?  No,  in  this  respect,  money  is 
now  exactly  what  mountain  promontories  over  public 
roads  were  in  olden  times.  The  barons  fought  for  them 
fairly:  —  the  strongest  and  cunningest  got  them;  then 
fortified  them  and  made  every  one  who  passed  below 
pay  toll.  Well,  capital  now  is  exactly  what  crags  were 
then.  Men  fight  fairly  for  their  money;  but  once  having 
got  it,  the  fortified  millionaire  can  make  everybody  who 
passes  below  pay  toll  to  his  million  and  build  another 
tower  of  his  money  castle.  —  Ruskin. 

4.  A  brogue  is  not  a  fault.  It  is  a  beauty,  an  heirloom,  a  dis- 
tinction. A  local  accent  is  like  a  landed  inheritance;  it 
marks  a  man's  place  in  the  world,  tells  where  he  comes 
from.  Of  course  it  is  possible  to  have  too  much  of  it.  A 
man  does  not  need  to  carry  the  soil  of  his  whole  farm 
around  with  him  on  his  boots.  But,  within  limits,  the  ac- 
cent of  a  native  region  is  delightful.  'T  is  the  flavor  of 
heather  in  the  grouse,  the  taste  of  wild-herbs  and  ever- 
green-buds in  the  venison.  I  like  the  maple-sugar  tang 
of  the  Vermonter's  sharp-edged  speech;  the  round,  full- 
waisted  r's  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio;  the  soft,  indolent 
vowels  of  the  South.  One  of  the  best  talkers  now  living  is 
a  schoolmaster  from  Virginia,  Colonel  Gordon  McCabe. 
I  once  crossed  the  ocean  with  him  on  a  stream  of  stories 
that  reached  from  Liverpool  to  New  York.  He  did  not 
talk  in  the  least  like  a  book.  He  talked  like  a  Virginian. 
—  Van  Dyke.i 

5.  Ariosto  tells  a  pretty  story  of  a  fairy,  who,  by  some  mys- 
terious law  of  her  nature,  was  condemned  to  appear  at 
certain  seasons  in  the  form  of  a  foul  and  poisonous  snake. 
Those  who  injured  her  during  the  period  of  her  disguise 
were  forever  excluded  from  participation  in  the  blessings 
which  she  bestowed.  But  to  those  who,  in  spite  of  her 
loathsome  aspect,  pitied  and  protected  her,  she  after- 
wards revealed  herself  in  the  beautiful  and  celestial  form 
which  was  natural  to  her,  accompanied  their  steps, 
granted  all  their  wishes,  filled  their  houses  with  wealth, 
made  them  happy  in  love  and  victorious  in  war.  Such  a 
spirit  is  Liberty.  At  times  she  takes  the  form  of  a  hate- 

1  Fisherman's  Luck,  by  Henry  vnn  Dyke.    Copyright,  1890,  11)05,  by  Charles  Scribner'a 
SoQB.    By  permissiOD  of  the  Tubliahers. 


METHODS  OF  EXPLANATION  215 

ful  reptile.  She  grovels,  she  hisses,  she  stings.  But  woe 
to  those  who  in  disgust  shall  venture  to  crush  her!  And 
happy  are  those  who,  having  dared  to  receive  her  in  her  de- 
graded and  frightful  shape,  shall  at  length  be  rewarded  by 
her  in  the  time  of  her  beauty  and  her  glory!  —  Macaulay. 

As  the  weeks  grew  to  months,  the  child  created  fresh  and 
fresh  links  between  his  life  and  the  lives  from  which  he  had 
hitherto  shrunk  continually  into  narrower  isolation.  Un- 
like the  gold  which  needed  nothing,  and  must  be  wor- 
shipped in  close-locked  solitude,  which  was  hidden  away 
from  the  the  daylight,  was  deaf  to  the  song  of  birds,  and 
started  to  no  human  tones,  Eppie  was  a  creature  of  end- 
less claims  and  ever-growing  desires,  seeking  and  loving 
sunshine  and  living  sounds  and  living  movements; 
making  trial  of  everything,  with  trust  in  new  joy,  and 
stirring  human  kindness  in  all  eyes  that  looked  on  her. 
The  gold  had  kept  his  thoughts  in  an  ever-repeated  circle, 
leading  to  nothing  beyond  itself;  but  Eppie  was  an  object 
compacted  of  changes  and  hopes  that  forced  his  thoughts 
onward,  and  carried  them  far  away  from  their  old  eager 
pacing  toward  the  same  blank  limit,  —  carried  them  away 
to  new  things  that  would  come  with  the  coming  years, 
when  Eppie  would  have  learned  to  understand  how  her 
father  Silas  cared  for  her;  and  made  him  look  for  images 
of  that  time  in  the  ties  and  charities  that  bound  together 
the  families  of  his  neighbors.  The  gold  had  asked  that  he 
should  sit  weaving  longer  and  longer,  deafened  and  blinded 
more  and  more  to  all  things  except  the  monotony  of  his 
loom  and  the  repetition  of  his  web;  but  Eppie  called  him 
away  from  his  weaving,  and  made  him  think  all  its  pauses 
a  holiday,  re-awakening  his  senses  with  her  fresh  life, 
even  to  the  old  winter-flies  that  came  crawling  forth  in 
the  early  spring  sunshine,  and  warming  him  into  joy  be- 
cause she  had  joy.  —  George  Eliot. 

Are  not  all  natural  things,  it  might  be  asked,  as  lovely  near 
as  far  away?  By  no  means.  Look  at  the  clouds  and  watch 
the  delicate  sculpture  of  their  alabaster  sides,  and  the 
rounded  lustre  of  their  magnificent  rolling.  They  are 
meant  to  be  beheld  far  away:  they  are  shaped  for  their 
place  high  above  your  head;  approach  them  and  they  whirl 


216  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

away  in  fierce  fragments  of  thunderous  vapor.  Look  at 
the  crest  of  the  Alp  from  the  far-away  plains  over  which 
its  light  is  cast,  whence  human  souls  have  communed 
with  it  by  myriads.  It  was  built  for  its  place  in  the  far- 
off  sky :  approach  it,  and  as  the  sound  of  the  voice  of  man 
dies  away  about  its  foundations,  and  the  tide  of  human 
life  is  met  at  last  by  the  eternal  "Here  shall  thy  proud 
waves  be  stayed,"  the  glory  of  its  aspect  fades  into 
blanched  fearfulness;  its  purple  walls  are  rent  into  grisly 
rocks,  its  silver  fretwork  saddened  into  wasting  snow;  the 
stormbrands  of  ages  are  on  its  breast,  the  ashes  of  its 
own  ruin  lie  solemnly  on  its  white  raiment.  —  Ruskin. 

8.  When  my  cousin  and  I  took  our  porridge  of  a  morning, 
we  had  a  device  to  enliven  the  course  of  the  meal.  He  ate 
his  with  sugar,  and  explained  it  to  be  a  country  continually 
buried  under  snow.  I  took  mine  with  milk,  and  explained 
it  to  be  a  country  suffering  gradual  inundation.  You  can 
imagine  us  exchanging  bulletins;  how  here  was  an  island 
still  unsubmerged,  here  a  valley  not  yet  covered  with 
snow;  what  inventions  were  madp;  how  his  population 
lived  in  cabins  on  perches  and  travelled  on  stilts,  and 
how  mine  were  always  in  boats;  how  the  interest  grew 
furious  as  the  last  corner  of  safe  ground  was  cut  off  on  all 
sides  and  grew  smaller  every  moment;  and  how,  in  fine, 
the  food  was  of  altogether  secondary  importance,  and 
might  even  have  been  nauseous,  so  long  as  we  seasoned 
it  with  these  dreams.  —  Stevenson.^ 

9.  We  grown  people  can  tell  ourselves  a  story,  give  and  take 
strokes  until  the  bucklers  ring,  ride  far  and  fast,  marry, 
fall,  and  die;  all  the  while  sitting  quietly  by  the  fire  or 
lying  prone  in  bed.  This  is  exactly  what  a  child  cannot  do, 
or  does  not  do,  at  least,  when  he  can  find  anything  else. 
He  works  all  with  lay  figures  and  stage  properties.  When 
his  story  comes  to  the  fighting,  he  must  rise,  get  some- . 
thing  by  way  of  a  sword,  and  have  a  set-to  with  a  piece 
of  furniture,  until  he  is  out  of  breath.  When  he  comes  to 
ride  with  the  king's  pardon,  he  must  bestride  a  chair, 
which  he  will  so  hurry  and  belabor,  and  on  which  he  will 
so  furiously  demean  himself,  that  the  messenger  will  ar- 
rive, if  not  bloody  with  spurring,  at  least  fiery  red  with 

1  By  permission  of  the  Publishers,  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


SUBJECT,  THEME,  AND  TITLE  217 

haste.  If  his  romance  involves  an  accident  upon  a  cliff,  he 
must  clamber  in  person  about  the  chest  of  drawers  and 
fall  bodily  upon  the  carpet,  before  his  imagination  is  sat- 
isfied. Lead  soldiers,  dolls,  all  toys,  in  short,  are  in  the 
same  category,  and  answer  the  same  end.  —  Stevenson.^ 

10.  For  many  years  after  the  Restoration,  they  [the  Puritans] 
were  the  theme  for  unmeasured  invective  and  derision. 
They  wer^  exposed  to  the  utmost  licentiousness  of  the 
press  and  the  stage,  at  the  time  when  the  press  and  the 
stage  were  most  licentious.  They  were  not  men  of  letters; 
they  were  as  a  body  unpopular;  they  could  not  defend 
themselves;  and  the  public  would  not  take  them  under  its 
protection.  They  were  therefore  abandoned  without 
reserve,  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  satirists  and  drama- 
tists. The  ostentatious  simplicity  of  their  dress,  their 
sour  aspect,  their  nasal  twang,  their  stiff  posture,  their 
long  graces,  their  Hebrew  names,  the  scriptural  phrases 
which  they  introduced  on  every  occasion,  their  contempt 
of  human  learning,  their  detestation  of  polite  amusements, 
were,  indeed,  fair  game  for  the  laughers.  — •  Macaulay. 

11.  Life  in  the  world  is  a  collecting,  and  all  the  men  and  women 
in  it  are  collectors.  The  question  is.  What  will  you  col- 
lect? Most  men  are  intent  on  collecting  dollars.  Their 
waking  hours  are  taken  up  with  inventing  plans,  methods, 
schemes,  whereby  they  may  secure  dollars  from  other 
men.  To  gather  as  many  dollars  as  possible  is  the  de- 
sideratum. And  when  you  collect  one  thing,  you  incident- 
ally collect  others.  The  fisherman  who  casts  his  net  for 
shad  usually  secures  a  few  other  fish,  and  once  in  a  while 
a  turtle,  which  enlarges  the  mesh  to  suit  and  gives  sweet 
liberty  to  the  shad.  To  focus  exclusively  jon  dollars  is  to 
secure  jealousy,  fear,  and  vanity,  and  a  vaulting  ambition 
which  may  claw  its  way  through  the  mesh  and  let  your 
dollars  slip  into  the  yeasty  deep.  —  Hubbard. 

SUBJECT,   THEME,  AND  TITLE 

Subject.  It  has  been  stated  that  because  abstract 
ideas  are  harder  to  grasp  than  those  that  are  concrete, 
exposition  is  harder  than  description.   Since  this  is  so, 

1  By  permisBion  of  the  PublieherB.  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


218  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

the  subjects  chosen  for  paragraphs  of  exposition  should  be 
easy,  and  subjects  that  are  thoroughly  understood.  No 
subject  can  be  considered  good  for  composition  that 
sends  a  pupil  to  a  library  to  copy  the  essential  facts. 
A  composition  exercise  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  start- 
ling either  the  class  or  the  teacher  with  some  un- 
heard-of thing;  it  is  to  teach  skill  in  saying  clearly  what 
the  student  already  knows.  The  subjects  that  pupils 
should  choose,  then,  ought  to  be  concerned  with  com- 
mon things,  or  with  things  about  which  they  have 
already  studied. 

Few  persons  have  the  ability  to  view  a  general  sub- 
ject in  all  its  relations.  "Books"  everybody  knows 
something  of;  yet  very  few  are  able  to  treat  this  gen- 
eral subject  in  all  its  phases.  A  person  writing  of  the 
general  topic,  "  Books,"  would  be  compelled  to  know  not 
only  what  a  book  is ^ what  may  truly  be  called  "a 
book  "  —  and  what  is  the  value  of  books  to  readers, 
and  therefore  the  influence  of  the  different  kinds  of 
literature,  but  also  about  the  machinery  for  making 
books,  the  history  of  printing,  illustrating,  and  binding 
books,  and  all  the  mechanical  processes  connected  with 
the  manufacture  of  books.  The  subject  might  take  quite 
another  turn,  and  be  the  development  of  fiction  or 
drama;  it  might  be  a  discussion  of  the  influences,  polit- 
ical or  social,  that  have  moulded  literature;  it  might 
be  a  study  of  character  as  manifested  in  different  works. 
Very  few  persons  are  well  fitted  to  write  on  the  gen- 
eral topic,  "  Books."   A  subject  should  be  limited. 

For  young  persons  the  subject  should  be  so  selected  and 
stated  that  the  treatment  may  be  concrete.  As  persons  ad- 
vance in  years,  they  speak  more  in  general  terms;  yet, 
after  all,  very  few  go  so  far  as  to  think  always  in  ab- 
stract terms.    Macaulay  says,  "  Logicians  may  reason 


SUBJECT,  THEME,  AND  TITLE  219 

about  abstractions,  but  the  great  mass  of  men  must 
have  images."  And  even  Macaulay  depended  largely 
for  his  glittering  effects  upon  the  use  of  common,  con- 
crete things  which  the  great  mass  of  people  understand. 
*'  Virtue,"  as  a  general  proposition,  is  beautiful;  but 
what  can  a  young  writer  say  about  it?  Let  him  leave  the 
whole  list  of  abstract  subjects  found  in  old  rhetorics 
alone.  They  are  subjects  for  experience;  they  cannot 
be  handled  by  youth. 

Theme.  After  a  subject  has  been  chosen,  the  writer 
next  considers  how  he  shall  treat  it.  He  sel^ts  the  posi- 
tion he  will  take  with  regard  to  the  proposition;  that  is, 
his  point  of  view.  This  position  he  embodies  in  a  short 
sentence,  called  his  theme.  For  instance,  "  patriotism  " 
is  the  subject;  as  it  stands,  it  is  abstract  and  very  gen- 
eral. However,  "  Can  a  lover  of  peace  be  a  patriot?  " 
would  be  sufficiently  concrete  to  be  treated.  Even  yet 
there  is  no  indication  of  the  author's  point  of  view. 
Should  he  write,  "  An  ardent  lover  of  peace  is  the  true 
patriot,"  his  theme  is  announced,  and  his  point  of  view. 

A  theme  is  essential  in  exposition.  It  is  not  necessary 
that  it  shall  be  stated  to  the  reader,  but  it  must  be 
clearly  stated  in  the  mind  of  the  writer  for  his  own  guid- 
ance. It  is,  however,  usually  announced  at  the  opening 
of  the  essay.  It  is  the  touchstone  by  which  the  author 
tries  all  the  material  he  has  collected.  Not  everything 
on  the  subject  of  patriotism  should  be  admitted  to  an 
essay  that  has  for  its  theme,  "An  ardent  lover  of  peace 
is  the  truest  patriot."  It  would  save  many  a  digression 
if  the  theme  were  written  in  bold,  black  letters,  and 
placed  before  the  author  as  he  writes. 

Every  word  in  the  statement  of  a  theme  should  be  there 
for  a  purpose,  expressing  some  important  modification 
of  the  thought.   For  instance,  the  statement  above  re- 


220  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

garding  "  a  lover  of  peace  "  may  be  too  sweeping;  per- 
haps the  essayist  would  prefer  to  discuss  the  modified 
statement  that  "  an  ardent  lover  of  peace  who  will 
not  go  so  far  as  to  sacrifice  country  and  honor  is  the 
truest  patriot."  The  statement  of  a  theme  should  em- 
ploy the  hardest  kind  of  thinking;  and  when  the  theme 
is  determined  definitely  and 'for  all,  the  essay  is  safe 
from  intrusion  of  foreign  ideas,  which  disturb  the  har- 
mony of  the  whole. 

Another  advantage  in  the  theme  is  that,  when  once 
chosen,  it  will  go  far  toward  writing  the  essay.  One  great 
trouble  with  the  young  writer  is  that  he  is  not  willing 
to  rely  on  his  theme  to  suggest  his  composition.  Pro- 
fessor Palmer  well  says:  — 

He  examines  his  pen-point,  the  curtains,  his  inkstand,  to 
see  if  perhaps  his  ideas  may  not  be  had  from  these.  He  wonders 
what  his  teach^er  will  wish  him  to  say,  and  he  tries  to  recall 
how  the  passage  sounded  in  the  Third  Reader.  In  every  di- 
rection but  one  he  turns,  and  that  is  the  direction  where 
lies  the  prime  mover  of  his  toil,  his  subject.  Of  that  he  is 
afraid.  Now,  what  I  want  to  make  evident  is  that  his  subject 
is  not  in  reality  the  foe,  but  the  friend.  It  is  his  only  helper. 
His  composition  is  not  to  be,  as  he  seems  to  suppose,  a  mass 
of  his  laborious  inventions,  but  it  is  tQ  be  made  up  exclusively 
of  what  the  subject  dictates.  He  has  only  to  attend.  At  pre- 
sent he  stands  in  his  own  way,  making  such  a  din  with  his 
private  anxieties  that  he  cannot  hear  the  rich  suggestions  of  the 
subject.  He  is  bothered  with  considering  how  he  feels,  or  what 
he  or  somebody  else  will  like  to  see  on  his  paper.  This  is  de- 
bilitating business.  He  must  lean  on  his  subject,  if  he  would 
have  his  writing  strong,  and  busy  himself  with  what  it  says, 
rather  than  with  what  he  would  say. 

Title.  Having  selected  a  subject  and  with  care 
stated  the  theme,  it  yet  remains  to  give  the  essay  a 
name.  There  is  something  in  a  name,  and  those  authors 
who  make  a  living  by  the  pen  are  the  ^hreivdest  i|i 


SUBJECT,  THEME,  AND  TITLE  221 

displaying  their  wares  under  the  most  attractive  titles. 
First,  the  title  should  he  attractive,  but  it  should  not 
promise  what  the  essay  does  not  give.  Newspaper  head- 
lines are  usually  attractive  enough,  but  often  shame- 
fully untruthful.  Next,  the  title  should  indicate  the 
scope  of  the  essay.  When  Professor  Palmer  calls  his 
excellent  little  book  "  Self -Cultivation  in  English,"  it  is 
evident  that  it  is  not  a  text-book  for  classes,  and  that 
it  will  not  treat  English  as  literature  or  as  a  science.  It 
is  a  book  telling  the  reader  how  to  gain  the  ability  to 
write  English  without  a  teacher.  Third,  the  title  should 
be  short.  The  theme  can  rarely  be  used  as  a  title;  it  is 
too  long.  But  the  principal  idea  developed  in  the  essay 
should  be  embodied  in  the  title.  *  *  Peace  and  Patriotism  *  * 
would  be  a  good  title  to  give  the  essay  we  have  spoken 
of.  The  title,  then,  should  be  attractive;  it  should  be 
short;  and  it  should  truthfully  indicate  the  contents  of 
the  essay. 

EXERCISE 

1.  For  each  of  the  following  titles  write  a  theme 
that  will  clearly  state  your  attitude  toward  the  sub- 
ject:— 

1.  The  Benefits  Derived  from  Fresh  Air. 

2.  How  to  Make  a  Rabbit-trap. 

3.  Birds  and  Animals  that  Practice  Deception. 

4.  The  Pleasures  of  Country  Life. 

5.  The  Value  of  Knowing  How  to  Swim. 

2.  For  each  of  the  following  themes  write  a  good 
title:  — 

1.  The  life  of  an  Indian  possesses  great  charm  for  me. 

2.  A  child  of  ten  can  do  much  that  is  useful. 

3.  Sometimes  I  fancy  flowers  are  in  character  like  people. 

4.  The  bee  is  an  interesting  fellow  to  study. 

5.  The  English  sparrow  has  some  qualities  we  must  admire. 


222  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

3.  For  each  of  the  following  subjects  write  a  good 
theme  and  a  title :  — 

1.  Our  companions. 

2.  Games. 

3.  Vacation  days. 

4.  Kite  making. 

5.  The  cigarette  habit. 

6.  My  garden. 

SELECTION  OF  MATERIAL 

.  One  of  the  important  factors  in  the  construction  of  an 
essay  is  the  selection  of  material.  Though  theme  and 
title  have  already  been  discussed,  it  is  not  because  they 
are  things  for  a  writer  to  consider  next  after  he  has  chosen 
his  subject;  but  because  they  are  so  intimately  bound 
up  with  the  subject  that  their  treatment  at  that  time 
was  natural.  The  title  is  not  in  the  least  essential  to 
the  writing  of  the  essay;  it  may  be  deferred  until  the 
essay  is  finished.  It  is  necessary,  however,  that  the 
writer  have  much  knowledge  of  his  subject,  and  that 
from  this  knowledge  he  be  able  to  frame  an  opinion  re- 
garding the  subject.  When  he  has  formed  his  opinion 
into  the  shape  of  a  theme,  he  is  ready  to  begin  the  work 
of  constructing  his  essay;  and  the  first  question  in  ex- 
position, as  in  narration  and  description,  is  the  selection 
of  material. 

Unity.  The  selection  of  material  in  exposition  requires 
>  the  shrewdest  scrutiny  to  keep  out  matter  that  does  not 
help  the  thought  forward.  In  narration  we  decided  by 
the  main  incident;  in  description,  by  the  purpose  and 
the  point  of  view;  in  exposition  we  test  all  material 
by  its  relation  to  the  theme.  Does  it  help  to  explain 
the  theme?  If  not,  however  good  material  it  may  be,  it 
has  no  business  in  the  essay. 


SELECTION  OF  MATERIAL  223 

Association  of  ideas  is  a  law  by  which,  when  one  of 
two  related  ideas  is  mentioned,  the  other  is  suggested. 
To  illustrate:  When  the  discovery  of  America  is  men- 
tioned, Columbus  appears;  when  treason  is  spoken  of, 
Arnold  comes  to  mind.  This  law  is  of  fundamental  im- 
portance in  writing  an  essay;  one  thing  should  suggest 
the  next.  But  valuable  as  it  is,  even  indispensable,  it 
may  become  the  source  of  much  mischief.  For  instance, 
a  pupil  has  this  for  his  theme:  **  Reading  gives  pleasure 
to  many."  He  writes  as  his  second  sentence,  "By 
pleasure  I  mean  the  opposite  of  pain,"  and  goes  on, 
"All  things  are  understood  by  their  opposites.  If  we 
did  not  know  sickness,  we  could  not  enjoy  health.  Joy 
is  understood  through  sorrow.  I  remember  my  first 
sorrow.  My  father  had  just  given  me  a  new  knife  — 
my  first  knife,"  and  so  on  from  one  thing  to  another, 
and  not  so  unnaturally,  either.  Each  sentence  has  sug- 
gested the  next;  but  not  one  is  on  the  theme,  "  Read- 
ing gives  pleasure  to  many."  Association  of  ideas  has 
in  this  case  led  the  writer  on  until  he  has  lost  sight  of 
his  original  theme.  Mischievous  it  may  be,  when  un- 
controlled; but  all  attractive  hterature  is  attractive 
because  it  is  bound  together  by  association  of  ideas. 

In  order  that  an  essay  may  be  clearly  on  one  subject, 
very  strict  watch  must  be  kept  in  the  selection  of  ma- 
terial. Some  things  will  be  admitted  without  question; 
some  will  be  rejected  with  no  hesitation.  But  there  is 
a  third  class  of  material,  which  is  closely  allied  with 
the  general  subject  and  near  the  border  line  of  the  theme; 
and  it  is  not  so  easy  to  determine  whether  it  should  be 
admitted  or  rejected.  This  class  of  material  requires 
the  closest  questioning.  All  matter  in  a  composition 
must  prove  its  right  to  be  there  by  contributing  to  the 
strength  of  the  essay,  not  to  the  number  of  its  pages. 


224  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

EXERCISE 

1.  In  the  following  paragraphs,  the  writer  has  been 
led  away  from  the  topic  by  association  of  ideas.  You 
will  notice  that  the  closing  sentence  has  no  relation  to 
the  opening.  Study  each  paragraph  carefully,  and  tell 
just  where  the  writer  began  to  wander,  and  what  led 
him  away  from  his  theme. 

1.  School  is  a  fine  place  to  learn  to  read  character.  Char- 
acter is  most  often  discovered  in  the  face.  The  face  is  said 
to  be  the  index  of  the  soul,  and  the  soul  is  that  part  of  us 
which  lives  after  death.  How  sad  a  thing  is  death,  too! 
Man  knows  he  will  live  in  the  hereafter,  yet  death  is 
seldom  welcome.  However,  we  do  welcome  spring  in  all 
its  freshness  and  beauty,  though  summer  is  really  love- 
lier with  its  fruits  and  ripening  grains.  Some  grains  ripen 
earlier  than  others.  Wheat  is  usually  harvested  late  in 
the  summer  or  in  the  early  autumn,  but  some  grains  ripen 
as  early  as  June.  This  latter  kind  is  sowed  in  the  autumn, 
and  the  seed  lies  in  the  ground  all  winter. 

2.  I  watched  two  squirrels  busy  laying  up  their  winter  store. 
It  was  interesting  to  see  them  at  work,  and  equally  inter- 
esting it  was  to  note  how  the  recent  blighting  frosts  had 
tinged  the  forest  leaves.  They  were  now  lovely  gold  and 
brown  and  purple,  and  silently  floated  down  at  each  pass- 
ing gust.  Some  leaves  hang  on  longer  than  others,  even 
until  late  the  next  spring.  The  new  buds  then  push  them 
off.  Botany  teaches  us  that  before  a  leaf  falls  there  is  al- 
ways a  new  leaf  in  bud-form,  to  take  the  old  one's  place. 
Botany  is  a  very  fascinating  study  besides  being  a  very 
useful  one.  The  use  of  a  powerful  microscope  is  necessary 
in  the  study  of  botany.  A  microscope  enables  one  to  dis- 
cover many  wonderful  facts. 

3.  Half  our  woes  are  imaginary.  The  power  of  the  imagina- 
tion is  very  great,  and  some  people  have  been  made  in- 
sane through  its  agency.  Children,  of  all  people,  are  most 
imaginative.  They  can  believe  whatever  is  told  them. 
Some  people  delight  to  frighten  children  with  stories  of 
ghosts  and  goblins  and  witches.  Ichabod  Crane  believed 


SELECTION  OF  MATERIAL  225 

in  ghosts  and  witches.  It  seems  strange  what  queer  be- 
liefs were  held  in  olden  times.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing 
for  a  person  to  be  accused  of  being  a  witch,  and  ducking 
was  one  of  the  means  of  punishment  for  the  crime.  If  a 
woman  was  a  great  scold,  she  was  often  ducked.  Gallop- 
ing Dick,  the  outlaw,  once  saved  a  woman  from  a  duck- 
ing, and  sorry  he  was  afterward  that  he  had  done  so.  She 
turned  out  to  be  a  regular  shrew,  a  termagant,  and  was 
too  great  a  match  for  him. 

2.  Now  write  a  paragraph  on  one  of  the  following 
themes,  in  which  the  association  of  ideas  joins  each  sen- 
tence to  the  one  preceding,  and  yet  in  which  the  last 
three  sentences  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  topic :  — 

1.  Goldsmith  said  that  Johnson  loved  to  use  big  words  so 
well  that  were  he  to  write  a  fable  about  little  fishes  he 
would  make  them  "talk  like  whales." 

2.  I  remember  well  how  we  made  hay  on  the  farm. 

3.  Oil  poured  on  angry  waves  will  calm  them. 

4.  Did  you  ever  watch  a  robin  tapping  the  ground  for  a  worm? 

5.  The  contents  of  the  small  boy's  pocket  proved  to  be  a 
motley  collection. 

6.  David  Copperfield  said,  "Peggotty's  arms  and  cheeks 
are  so  red,  I  wonder  that  the  birds  don't  peck  them  for 
apples." 

7.  It  is  not  the  victory  but  the  fight  that  is  worth  while. 

3.  Next  take  one  of  the  seven  themes  mentioned 
above,  and  write  a  paragraph  in  which  one  sentence 
grows  from  the  preceding  sentence  by  association  of 
ideas,  and  in  which  all  are  clearly  on  the  theme.  Have 
a  good  sentence  at  the  end  of  your  paragraph. 

Scale  of  treatment.  There  is  another  condition  that 
must  be  considered  in  the  selection  of  material;  it  is  the 
scale  of  treatment.  Possibly  no  better  illustration  of  this 
can  be  found  than  one  that  most  of  us  are  familiar  with. 
About  the  fifth  grade  in  the  majority  of  schools,  the 
pupils  used  to  begin  the  study  of  geography  with  a  thin 


226  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

little  book.  That  book  contained  the  names  of  the  five 
great  continents,  the  five  oceans,  a  sHght  discussion  of 
the  great  countries  of  the  world,  and  a  bare  mention  of 
their  products.  A  few  large  rivers  were  indicated  on  the 
maps,  a  few  mountain  ranges,  and  the  capital  cities. 
Grown  a  year  older,  the  pupils  were  graduated  from 
that  beginner's  little  geography  and  entered  a  new 
field.  Geography  had  grown  up;  it  had  become  a  much 
larger  book,  with  many  more  maps  and  pictures  and  much 
more  reading.  In  the  little  book  only  a  few  of  the  most 
imix)rtant  matters  were  discussed;  in  this  larger  book, 
rivers  before  unknown  crept  across  the  page,  unheard-of 
cities  dotted  the  land,  and  new  products  were  carried 
to  market.  Possibly  an  interest  in  distant  peoples  was 
aroused  by  this  study,  and  some  boy  wished  that  he 
might  know  more  about  Japan.  In  that  case,  he  could 
find  one  whole  book  devoted  to  this  small  country;  or, 
yet  more,  he  might  get  a  large  book  telling  only  about 
the  beautiful  city  of  Yokohama.  In  that  little  book  of 
childhood,  there  was  only  a  short  paragraph  about 
Japan;  in  the  grammar  school  geography  there  was  a 
chapter;  while  the  attractive  volume  he  now  has  names 
a  hundred  large  cities  in  the  Island  Empire,  pictures 
several  great  mountain  ranges,  and  numerous  industries. 
The  scale  of  treatment  has  changed. 

Now,  if  a  pupil  were  to  write  but  one  paragraph  upon 
the  life  of  Washington,  he  could  not  include  the  many 
circumstances  found  in  his  United  States  History.  He 
would  mention  Washington's  connection  with  Braddock; 
his  command  of  the  army  during  the  Revolution;  and 
his  selection  to  be  the  first  President  of  the  new  nation. 
But  Irving,  who  admired  this  great  man  so  much, 
needed  four  large  volumes  to  tell  all  he  wished  to  say 
of  George  Washington.  The  second  consideration,  then. 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  227 

in  selecting  material  is  the  range  of  the  essay,  and  the 
consequent  degree  of  thoroughness  with  which  the  sub- 
ject is  to  be  treated;  that  is,  its  scale  of  treatment. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Make  an  analysis  of  the  chapter  on  Letter- Writing, 
showing  the  chief  divisions  of  the  subject. 

2.  Make  an  outline  for  a  paragraph  on  the  subject 
of  Letter- Writing,  which  you  might  write  in  answer  to 
this  question :  What  do  you  consider  the  most  import- 
ant principles  governing  Letter- Writing? 

3.  Write  out  your  complete  answer  to  the  above  ques- 
tion in  a  well  arranged  paragraph  of  not  more  than 
two  hundred  words. 

ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL 

Following  the  selection  of  material  for  an  essay 
comes  its  arrangement.  The  same  principles  of  Mass  and 
Coherence  in  the  whole  that  were  studied  under  Nar- 
ration and  Description  guide  here  too;  but  the  appli- 
cation of  these  principles  to  Exposition  presents  pecu- 
liar diflBculties  because  the  material  is  so  hard  to  grasp. 

Outline  of  an  essay.  Suppose  the  subject  is  "  The 
Evils  of  War."  The  first  paragraph  might  contain  a 
general  statement  announcing  the  theme.  Then  these 
topics  are  to  be  discussed :  — 

1.  War  has  a  degrading  effect  on  the  morals  of  a  nation. 

2.  Worse  than  the  loss  of  life  on  the  battle-field  is  the  ter- 
rible suflFering  of  friends  at  home. 

3.  War  is  always  attended  with  great  loss  of  life. 

4.  Every  new  war  is  a  backward  step  in  man's  progress  in 
civilization. 

5.  Great  loss  of  property  is  entailed  in  every  war;  and  enor- 
mous debts  are  accumulated  by  the  nations. 


228  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

If  you  ask  yourself  which  of  these  topics  is  the  most  im- 
portant, you  will  soon  see  that  the  last  is  possibly  of 
the  very  least  consequence;  and  as  you  think  it  over 
you  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  hardly  a  worse 
arrangement  could  be  made.  Is  there  no  device  by 
which  order  can  be  obtained? 

It  is  difficult  to  picture  distinctly  the  value  and  the 
relation  of  the  different  topics  in  Exposition.  The  most 
helpful  suggestion  regarding  a  method  of  making  the  ma- 
terial in  some  degree  visible,  capable  of  being  grasped, 
is  that  each  subdivision  be  placed  on  a  separate  card, 
and  that  the  material,  as  it  is  gathered,  be  put  upon  the 
card  containing  the  group  to  which  it  belongs.  It  is 
much  like  the  game  of  word-building,  or  anagrams  — 
this  ordering  of  matter  in  an  essay.  If  these  letters, 
s-l-y-w-a-r-e,  were  together  on  a  card,  a  person  would 
find  trouble  in  arranging  them  so  that  they  spelled  a 
word.  If,  however,  he  could  cut  them  apart  and  move 
them  about  and  arrange  them  in  different  ways,  he  would 
find  that  they  really  make  the  rather  common  word 
lawyers.  So,  in  building  the  essay,  the  topic  cards  can 
be  moved  and  rearranged  in  all  possible  ways,  until 
last  the  writer  finds  the  way  in  which  the  essay  will  ad 
vance  in  a  clear  and  natural  order. 

In  exposition,  where  the  whole  attention  of  the  reader 
should  be  given  to  the  thought,  the  greatest  care  should 
be  taken  in  making  a  plan.  No  person  that  has  attained 
distinction  in  prose  has  worked  without  a  plan.  How 
clear  a  plan  may  be,  can  be  easily  seen  in  Macaulay*s 
essays;  how  logical  and  exact,  in  Burke*s  orations. 
However  beautiful  a  piece  may  be,  however  naturally 
one  thought  grows  out  of  another,  as  though  it  could 
be  no  other  way,  be  sure  it  is  so  because  of  some  man's 
thought,  because  of  careful  planning.   Webster  planned 


an/ 
atV 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  229 

his  orations,  Newman  planned  his  essays,  Carlyle 
planned  his  "  Frederick  the  Great."  Their  works  are 
not  momentary  inspirations;  they  are  the  result  of  fore- 
thought, long  and  painstaking.  The  absolute  essential 
in  the  structure  of  an  essay,  that  without  which  it 
will  fail  to  arrive  anywhere,  that  compared  to  which  all 
fine  writing  is  as  nothing,  —  the  absolute  essential  in 
every  composition,  —  is  the  plan. 

The  plan,  or  outline,  of  an  essay  may  be  made  in 
two  ways :  — 

(1)  Simple  Outline,  First,  it  may  be  simply  a  list  of 
headings  that  will  be  treated  in  the  essay.  One  could 
analyze  the  chapter  on  Letter- Writing  in  this  book  and 
find  the  outline  upon  which  it  was  probably  written.  It 
falls  into  five  parts,  as  follows :  — 

1.  The  Conventions  of  Letter- Writing. 

2.  Business  Correspondence. 

3.  Friendly  Correspondence. 

4.  Society  Correspondence. 

5.  General  Suggestions. 

By  analysis  one  would  find  that  each  of  these  major 
headings  was  subdivided  into  several  topics  for  detailed 
treatment.  For  example,  take  *'  The  Conventions  of 
Letter- Writing,"  which  is  divided  into  six  sub-head- 
ings:— 

1.  The  Conventions  of  Letter- Writing. 

a.  Heading. 

b.  Address. 

c.  Salutation. 

d.  Body. 

e.  Complimentary  Close. 
/.  Signature. 

It  is  in  this  way  that  most  of  the  outlines  you  are  called 
upon  to  make  for  the  contents  of  chapters  in  history. 


230  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

physical  geography,  or  any  similar  subject  would  be 
made.  Such  an  outline  simply  enumerates  the  topics 
that  will  be  discussed. 

(2)  Briefs.  Second,  the  plan  of  an  essay  may  do 
more  than  simply  enumerate  the  bare  headings,  as 
above;  it  may  state  the  attitude  of  the  writer  in  regard 
to  the  topics  to  be  discussed.  In  such  a  case  the  outline 
gives  the  gist  of  the  whole  essay  in  a  few  clear  sen- 
tences. An  outline  of  this  kind  is  called  a  brief,  because 
it  is  in  reality  a  brief  summary  of  the  essay. 

Below  are  an  outline  and  a  brief  of  a  chapter  in  a  book 
on  Thrift,  by  Samuel  Smiles.  The  title  of  the  chapter 
is  "  Little  Things,"  and  the  greater  part  of  it  is  filled 
with  incidents  illustrating  the  different  topics. 

LITTLE  THINGS 

1.  Value. 

2.  Knowledge. 
8.  Household. 

4.  Ruin. 

5.  Savings. 

Possibly  the  outline  has  given  you  some  slight  clew  to 
what  will  be  said  in  the  chapter;  certainly  it  is  only  the 
slenderest  indication  of  what  is  to  be  found.  Now  notice 
the  difference  when  the  topic  sentences  which  the 
author  uses  are  substituted  for  the  bare  words  in  the 
outline.  These  indicate  clearly  the  whole  discussion, 
covering  twenty  pages. 

LITTLE  THINGS 

1.  Human  life  consists  of  a  succession  of  small  events,  each 
of  which  is  comparatively  unimportant ;  and  yet  the  hap- 
piness and  success  of  every  man  depend  upon  the  manner 
in  which  these  small  events  are  dealt  with. 

2.  Accumulations  of  knowledge  and  experience  of  the  most 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  231 

valuable  kind  are  the  result  of  little  bits  of  knowledge 
and  experience  carefully  treasured  up. 

3.  There  are  many  things  in  the  household,  attention  to 
which  is  indispensable  to  health  and  happiness. 

4.  Neglect  of  little  things  has  ruined  many  fortunes  and 
marred  the  best  of  enterprises. 

5.  All  savings  are  made  up  of  little  things. 

An  outline,  no  matter  what  the  type,  should  be  uni- 
form in  style.  By  this  is  meant  that  if  the  outline  is  for 
the  greater  part  a  simple  enumeration  of  headings,  it 
should  be  so  the  whole  way  through.  It  would  break 
the  method  to  introduce  into  such  an  outline  one  head- 
ing consisting  of  a  complete  sentence.  Similarly,  if  the 
outline  starts  in  brief  form,  it  should  continue  so. 

The  following  is  not  good.  The  theme  is,  "  Avoid 
whatever  tends  to  lessen  vitality."  These  are  the  head- 
ings:— 

1.  Tobacco. 

2.  The  drinking  habit  is  to  be  set  down  as  a  great  waste  of 
vitality. 

3.  Lack  of  air. 

4.  Worry. 

5.  Sound  digestion  as  a  fundamental  in  vitality. 

6.  Anger. 

7.  Overwork. 

8.  Of  sleep. 

9.  The  bath. 

Moreover,  an  outline  should  be  made  with  a  proper 
regard  for  Mass.  A  good  start  and  a  strong  finish  are 
qualities  that  recommend  an  essay  or  an  outline. 

It  will  be  found  in  practice  that  pupils  gain  much 
more  power  when  they  make  their  plans  in  brief  form 
rather  than  in  outline  form.  The  brief  compels  thought; 
it  is  not  a  hap-hazard  catching  at  the  few  scattered 
headings  that  may  dodge  into  consciousness.  Headings 


232  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

must  be  seized  and  examined;  their  bearing  on  the  whole 
must  be  studied  before  they  can  be  formed  into  the  per- 
fect shape  that  fits  exactly  into  the  present  structure  — 
that  is,  into  the  finely  formed  sentences  that  make  a 
brief.  The  formation  of  clear  sentences  that  say  just 
what  should  be  said  requires  effort;  but  effort  always  is 
rewarded  by  an  increase  of  power. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Make  an  outline  consisting  of  five  or  six  headings 
of  a  chapter  in  your  history,  your  geography,  your  gram- 
mar, or  some  other  text-book.  Or  make  an  outline  of  the 
chapter  on  Description  in  this  book. 

2.  Make  a  good  outline  of  the  headings  given  on  the 
theme,  "  Avoid  whatever  tends  to  lessen  vitality." 

3.  Below  are  given  a  number  of  qualifications  that 
would  make  Robert  a  valuable  employee.  Arrange  them, 
having  regard  to  uniformity  and  mass.  Then  write  the 
letter  of  recommendation. 

1.  Always  punctual.  ^  4.  Has  obliging  manner. 

2.  Not  afraid  of  work.  5.  Scrupulously  honest. 

3.  Quickness  and  neatness.  6.  Uniformly  courteous. 

7.  Determined  to  succeed. 

4.  Burke,  in  discussing  the  theme,  "  The  spirit  of 
liberty  among  the  American  colonies  arose  from  several 
causes,"  used  the  following  subdivisions:  — 

1.  Form  of  government. 

2.  Distance  from  the  mother  country. 

3.  Education. 

4.  Slavery  in  one  portion  of  the  country. 

5.  Religion. 

6.  Descent  from  liberty-loving  Englishmen. 

Rewrite  this  in  the  form  of  a  brief,  by  your  arrangement 
placing  the  emphasis  on  important  matters. 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  233 

5.  Complete  the  following  plan  for  an  essay,  by  filling 
in  the  subheadings.  Where  will  you  place  the  most 
important  subdivision  under  each  topic? 

THE  VALUE  OF  PUBLIC  PLAYGROUNDS 

Introduction:  giving  the  occasion  for  writing  an  essay  on 

this  topic. 
Body: 

I.  Physical  Development  of  Children, 
a. 
b. 
n.  Mental  Training  of  Children. 
a. 
b. 
in.  Moral  Training  of  Children. 
a. 
b. 
Conclusion:  A  higher  type  of  citizenship  is  developed  by 
the  equality  taught  on  our  public  playgrounds. 

6.  Write  a  brief  of  at  least  five  headings  upon  the 
subject,  "  What  the  High  School  has  done  for  me." 
Arrange  so  that  important  matters  have  positions  of 
importance. 

7.  Choose  one  of  the  following  subjects  and  make  a 
brief  for  an  essay  of  eight  paragraphs:  — 

1.  The  purpose  of  reading. 

2.  Why  one  should  own  his  library. 

3.  The  necessity  of  exercise. 

4.  The  difficulties  in  chicken-raising. 

5.  The  value  of  using  a  plan. 

6.  The  influence  upon  young  people  produced  by  the  comic 
section  of  many  newspapers. 

8.  After  you  have  completed  your  plan  for  an  essay 
upon  one  of  the  many  subjects  assigned,  write  one  para- 
graph of  the  essay,  but  not  the  first  one.   Be  sure  that 


2S4  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

you  stick  to  the  topic  of  the  paragraph,  and  that  you 
do  not  run  over  into  matter  that  belongs  in  another 
paragraph. 

(Note.  Before  leaving  this  work,  it  would  be  well  to  work 
out  at  least  three  more  subjects.  Select  your  own  subjects  or 
choose  them  from  the  list  at  the  end  of  the  chapter.) 

Paragraphs  in  an  essay.  When  the  plan  for  an  essay 
has  been  completed,  one  half  the  work  has  been  done, 
and  that  the  more  difficult  half.  The  next  thing  is 
the  consideration  of  individual  paragraphs.  Each  topic 
in  a  brief  will  require  for  its  complete  expression  a  para- 
graph, or,  if  important,  several  paragraphs.  Really  people 
think  with  paragraphs  as  units,  not  with  sentences. 
When  one  says,  **  Trade  schools  mean  the  elevation  of 
labor,"  the  hearer  at  once  thinks  of  a  number  of  ways 
in  which  the  trade  school  will  benefit  those  engaged  in 
the  industries.  This  group  of  thoughts  on  a  single  topic 
makes  a  thought-paragraph;  and,  when  expressed,  it  is 
a  paragraph  in  composition.  We  must  attend  now,  not 
to  the  essay  as  a  whole,  but  to  the  formation  of  clear, 
strong  paragraphs. 

It  is  not  necessary  now  to  define  Unity;  the  need  is 
rather  to  notice  the  offenses  against  it  that  frequently 
occur.  In  paragraphs,  as  in  whole  compositions,  too 
much  may  be  included,  or  not  enough.  The  result  of 
the  first  fault  is  a  very  long  paragraph,  and  of  the 
second  fault  a  short  paragraph. 

A  long  paragraph  is  treacherous,  and  very  often  leads 
a  writer  into  violations  of  this  principle  of  Unity.  When 
one  begins  to  write,  many  thoughts  crowd  in  pell-mell. 
Impressions,  which  come  and  go,  we  know  not  how  or 
why,  are  the  only  products  of  many  minds.  Impres- 
sions, not  thoughts  carefully  considered  and  shaped  into 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  MATERIAL  235 

forms  of  strength  and  beauty,  make  up  the  mixed  con- 
fusion frequently  called  a  paragraph.  And  this  confu- 
sion continues  until  the  writer  has  said  all  that  he  knows 
upon  the  subject,  often  material  for  three  or  four  para- 
graphs. This  tendency  to  string  together  a  whole  essay 
in  one  long  paragraph  is  often  the  cause  of  violations  of 
Unity. 

The  other  danger  lies  in  the  short  paragraph.  If  the 
writer  has  not  said  all  he  has  to  say  upon  the  topic,  his 
thought  runs  over  into  the  next  paragraph.  All  of  the 
thought-paragraph  should  appear  in  one  division  on  the 
page.  This  error  is  not  so  common  as  the  former.  Ex- 
amples of  each  are  shown  in  the  following  paragraphs :  — 

Erect  carriage  is  another  of  the  characteristics  which  distin- 
guish the  human  species  from  all  other  animals,  including  the 
ape,  by  which  this  position  is  but  rarely  assumed,  and  then 
accidentally  and  unnaturally. 

Everything  in  the  human  skeleton  is  calculated  to  insure  a 
vertical  posture.  In  the  first  place,  the  head  articulates  with 
the  vetebral  column  at  a  point  so  situated  that,  when  this  ver- 
tebral column  is  erect,  the  head,  by  means  of  its  own  weight, 
remains  supported  in  equilibrium.  Besides  this,  the  shape  of 
the  head,  the  direction  of  the  face,  the  position  of  the  eye,  and 
the  form  of  the  nostrils  all  require  that  man  should  walk  erect 
on  two  feet. 

J.  J.  Rousseau  was,  therefore,  very  far  from  right  when  he 
contended  that  man  was  born  to  go  on  all  fours. 

The  following  paragraph  is  taken  from  an  article 
entitled  "  The  Seashore."  It  shows  the  lack  of  an  out- 
line:— 

The  wear  of  the  sea  is  but  little  seen  on  the  rocky  shores  of 
Great  Britain,  and  still  less  so  where  the  coast  is  low  and  flat, 
and  the  shore  is  very  extensive  and  the  water  is  shallow  for  a 
long  distance.  In  fact,  on  many  of  these  flat  shores,  instead  of 
erosion  taking  place,  the  sea  is  adding  to  the  land  by  deposit- 
ing.   This  is  particularly  the  case  at  the  entrance  of  great, 


236  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

and  of  many  small  rivers.  Their  mud  collects  in  the  shallows 
at  their  mouths,  and  is  added  to  by  sand  and  shingle,  so  that 
land  grows  seaward,  instead  of  the  reverse.  The  seashore  is 
then,  usually,  uninviting  and  often  consists  of  large  mud  flats. 
Again,  in  some  localities,  where  much  sand  collects  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  rock  forming  the  seashore,  it  may  be  "quick"  in 
many  places.  The  rising  tide  gets  under  the  sand,  which  sud- 
denly becomes  like  so  much  sand  and  water,  and  the  falling 
tide  leaves  it  hard  for  a  while.  The  ordinary  condition  of  a 
sandy  shore  is  either  that  of  a  number  of  slightly  rounded 
stretches  of  sand,  with  drainage-streams  between  them,  or  it 
is  pretty  hard,  readily  dug  into,  and  marked  on  the  surface 
by  ripples.  The  ripple-mark  on  sand  always  strikes  the  ob- 
server; it  represents  little  ripple-like  waves,  wonderfully  regu- 
lar, and  each  has  a  ridge  and  a  valley.  They  are  very  lasting, 
but  disappear  on  the  slightest  movement  of  the  wet  sand  as  the 
tide  comes  in.  These  little  ridges  and  valleys  are  not  found 
when  the  water  covers  the  sand  at  a  considerable  depth,  but 
they  are  especially  seen  between  high  and  low  spring-tide 
limit.  Such  marks  can  be  made,  artificially,  with  sand,  for 
ihstance,  on  the  bottom  of  a  large  basin.  If  some  sand  is 
placed  on  the  bottom,  and  water  be  poured  in,  and  the  edge  of 
the  basin  be  pushed,  a  to-and-fro  movement  of  the  water  will 
occur,  and  it  will  be  continued  down  to  the  sand.  As  the  mo- 
tion ceases,  the  sand  will  be  seen  to  collect  in  ridges,  side  by 
side,  and  they  will  be  perfect  when  the  motion  stops.  Mo- 
tion of  the  sea-water  in  one  direction  over  soft  sand  will  not 
produce  ripple-marks  well,  but  a  slight  to-and-fro  movement 
will  do  it  to  perfection. 

The  remedy  for  such  confusion  as  is  here  illustrated  is 
careful  tjiinking;  and  a  great  assistance  to  careful  think- 
ing is  a  plan.  Before  a  word  is  written,  think  through  the 
whole  essay,  get  clearly  the  purpose  of  each  paragraph  in 
the  development  of  the  whole.  Then  write  just  what  the 
paragraph  was  intended  to  include,  and  no  more.  More 
will  be  suggested,  because  the  parts  of  a  whole  essay  are 
all  closely  related;  but  that  more  belongs  somewhere 
else. 


MASS  237 

EXERCISE 

Make  a  brief  for  five  paragraphs  on  each  of  two  of 
the  following  subjects.  Then  write  the  second  and  last 
paragraphs  of  one  of  the  briefs.  Be  sure  not  to  include 
any  material  that  belongs  in  another  paragraph. 

1.  Saving  Money. 

2.  The  Gypsy  Moth  (or  some  other  pest). 

3.  My  Purpose  in  Going  to  College. 

4.  Some  Ways  in  Which  Girls  Earn  Money. 

5.  An  Eight-Hour  Day  for  all  Workers. 

MASS 

In  a  paragraph.  When  the  material  has  been  carefully 
sifted  out,  and  it  is  known  just  what  each  paragraph  is  to 
do  in  the  whole  essay,  the  form  of  the  different  paragraphs 
is  to  be  considered.  Every  paragraph  should  be  so  ar- 
ranged that  the  words  that  catch  the  attention  shall  be 
words  of  importance.  When  a  person  glances  down  a 
page,  his  eye  rests  upon  the  beginning  and  the  end  of 
each  paragraph.  A  reader  going  rapidly  through  an 
article  to  get  what  he  wants  does  not  read  every  word; 
he  knows  that  he  will  be  directed  to  the  contents  of  each 
paragraph  by  the  first  and  the  last  sentence.  If  a  writer 
considers  his  readers,  if  he  desires  to  arrange  his  para- 
graph so  that  it  will  be  most  effective,  he  will  have  at 
these  points  such  sentences  as  will  accurately  indicate 
the  contents  of  the  paragraph  and  the  trend  of  the  dis- 
cussion; and  he  will  form  these  sentences  so  well  that 
they  will  deserve  the  attention  that  is  given  them. 

What,  then,  are  the  words  that  deserve  the  distinction 
of  opening  and  closing  a  paragraph?  Generally  the  first 
sentence  announces  the  subject  of  discussion.  In  a  para- 
graph, when  the  subject  is  simply  announced  without 
giving  any  indication  as  to  the  drift  of  the  discussion. 


238  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

the  conclusion  of  the  discussion  is  usually  stated  in 
the  last  sentence.  Burke  opens  a  paragraph  in  which 
he  discusses  the  rapid  growth  of  the  American  colo- 
nies. 

The  first  thing  we  have  to  consider  with  regard  to  the  na- 
ture of  the  object  is  the  number  of  people  in  the  colonies. 

He  concludes  the  paragraph  with  — 

Your  children  do  not  grow  faster  from  infancy  to  man- 
hood than  they  [the  inhabitants  of  the  colonies]  spread  from 
families  to  communities,  and  from  villages  to  nations. 

In  other  cases,  and  this  is  more  common,  the  opening 
sentence  of  a  paragraph  states  the  complete  theme,  the 
conclusion  at  which  the  paragraph  will  arrive.  Then  the 
concluding  sentence  is  usually  a  repetition  of  the  open- 
ing, or  topic,  sentence;  but  it  may  be  one  of  the  sub- 
topics used  to  establish  the  proposition  that  begins  the 
paragraph.  In  most  short  paragraphs,  however,  the 
topic  sentence  is  announced  but  once;  and  it  is  some- 
times found  at  the  beginning  of  the  paragraph,  some- 
times at  the  end.  It  is,  however,  a  safe  rule  for  a  begin- 
ner always  to  state  the  theme  in  the  last  sentence  — 
for  the  first  time,  if  the  paragraph  is  short,  but  restate 
it  if  the  paragraph  is  long.  Sentences  of  importance  open 
and  close  a  paragraph, 

EXERCISE 

1.  Below  are  given  sentences  opening  and  closing 
paragraphs.  In  the  first  group  are  sentences  in  which 
the  subject  is  made  known  at  once,  but  in  which  the 
attitude  of  the  writer  does  not  appear  until  the  second 
sentence.  In  the  second  group,  the  topic  is  announced 
in  the  first  sentence  and  repeated  in  the  last.  Write 
one  paragraph  for  each  case. 


MASS  239 


1.  Many  birds  furnish  plumage  to  supply  the  demands  of 
fashion.  .  .  .  The  reckless  slaughter  of  our  song-birds  will 
soon  lead  to  their  extermination. 

2.  Laws  governing  the  sale  of  the  cigarette  have  been  made  in 
many  states.  .  .  .  These  laws  should  be  strictly  enforced. 

3.  It  is  a  great  problem,  as  life  goes  on,  as  duties  become  more 
defined,  and  as  one  becomes  more  and  more  conscious  of 
the  shortness  of  life,  what  the  duty  of  a  cultivated  and 
open-minded  man  is  in  regard  to  general  reading.  ...  I 
am  inclined  to  think  as  one  grows  older,  one  may  read  less; 
it  is  impossible  to  keep  up  with  the  vast  output  of  litera- 
ture, and  it  is  hard  enough  to  find  time  to  follow  even  the 
one  or  two  branches  in  which  one  is  specially  interested. 

II 

1.  Such  we  believe  to  have  been  the  character  of  the  Puritans. 
.  .  .  Yet  when  all  circumstances  are  taken  into  considera- 
tion, we  do  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  them  a  brave,  a  wise, 
an  honest,  and  a  useful  body. 

2.  We  have  all  said  a  hundred  times  over  that  habit  is  second 
nature — repeating  thoughtlessly  the  acute  remark  of  some 
nameless  and  forgotten  philosopher,  some  Peckham  So- 
crates or  some  Bloomsbury  Aristotle,  who  first  invented,  no 
doubt,  that  now  historical  phrase.  .  .  .  Habit  is  that  which 
by  use  has  become  natural  to  us;  nature  is  habit  handed 
down  from  our  ancestors,  and  ingrained  bodily  in  the  very 
structure  of  our  brains  and  muscles  and  nervous  systems. 

8.  The  world  needs  good  men.  .  .  .  For  such  men  as  these, 
who  have  contributed  to  the  greatest  and  best  achievements 
of  the  age,  who  have  given  up  their  liberty  and  lives  for  the 
good  of  a  noble  cause,  the  world  has  always  a  need  and  a 
place. 

4.  The  reader  or  the  spectator  who  would  fully  enjoy  As  You 
Like  It  must  accept  it  in  the  mood  in  which  it  was  con- 
ceived. ...  He  feels  himself  set  free  from  a  world  of  hard 
facts.   He  is  in  Arden. 

2.  Below  you  will  find  a  short  brief.  After  the  Intro- 


240  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

duction  stating  the  occasion  for  writing  the  essay,  which 
may  have  been  a  dispute  you  had  with  a  friend  or  some 
item  in  a  paper  or  magazine,  the  essay  divides  into  two 
main  parts.  Each  major  division  is  subdivided.  Study 
the  brief  carefully ;  then  write  the  complete  essay,  follow- 
ing the  methods  of  explanation  indicated. 

THE  VALUE  OF  TRADE  SCHOOLS 

^  1.  Introduction  (a  short  narrative  paragraph  giving  the 
occasion). 

Part  I.  Advantages  to  the  Individual 

%  2.  Topic  sentence :  High  school  training  to-day  tends  in  one 
direction,  toward  the  college. 

[Develop  the  paragraph  by  the  use  of  repetition  and 
details  illustrating  the  topic] 

Closing  sentence:  Then  may  he  choose  whatever  occu- 
pation his  taste  and  talents  call  for,  and  the  professions 
will  not  be  needlessly  overcrowded  by  those  ill-fitted  for 
such  courses. 
^  3.  Topic  sentence:  There  are  many  workers  to  be  had,  but 
they  are  unskilled.  The  demand  everywhere  is  for  the 
skilled  workman,  not  simply  the  "hired  hand." 

[Develop  by  details  illustrating  the  statement.] 

Closing  sentence:  With  the  trained  hand  moving  in 
accord  with  the  quickened  brain,  our  workmen  will  be- 
come masters  of  their  crafts. 
%  4.  Topic  sentence:  Many  a  young  man  is  discouraged  from 
learning  a  trade  by  the  galling  treatment  given  to  an 
apprentice.  Also,  he  knows  he  must  toil  unrewarded  for 
a  long  time  for  what  is  frequently  only  haphazard  know- 
ledge. 

[Develop  by  repetition,  using  two  sentences  to  repeat 
the  first  thought  and  two  to  repeat  the  second  thought.] 

Closing  sentence:  He  goes  from  his  training  with  an 
intelligent   understanding,  ready  to   begin    active,  re- 
sponsible work  at  once  and  to  ask  in  return  for  his  labor 
a  suitable  recompense. 
^  5.  Topic  sentence:  Ruskiu  says,  "He  who  works  with  his 


MASS  241 

hands  alone  is  a  mechanic;  he  who  works  with  his  hands 
and  brain  is  an  artisan;  but  he  who  works  with  his 
hands,  brain,  and  heart  is  an  artist." 

[Develop  by  repetition,  having  one  sentence  to  repeat 
each  of  the  three  subdivisions  of  the  topic  sentence.] 

Closing  sentence:  Surrounded  by  comfort  and  happi- 
ness, rightfully  employed,  "his  pleasure  growing  out  of 
his  occupation  like  a  fruitful  flower,"  to  what  heights  of 
development  may  our  workman  not  attain ! 

Part  II.  Advantages  to  the  Nation 
^  1.  Topic  sentence:  The  stigma  now  attached  to  taking  up  a 
trade  will  be  wiped  out. 

[Develop  by  details  of  illustration.] 

Closing  sentence:  The  trades,  as  well  as  the  professions, 
will  be  honored  when  we  see  labor,  dignified,  taking  its 
rightful  place,  side  by  side,  with  capital;  when  we  see 
labor,  having  earned  its  title  to  respect  and  considera- 
tion, no  longer  considered  the  portion  of  ignorant  masses. 
^  2.  Topic  sentence:  The  work  of  the  individual  is  the  work 
of  the  nation. 

[Develop  by  repetition  and  comparison.  Use  Germany.] 

Closing  sentence:  The  stamp  of  "Made  in  America  " 
should  then  stand  for  all  that  is  honest,  excellent,    and 
desirable, 
if  3.  Topic  Sentence:  Ignorance  leads  to  poverty,  and  poverty 
to  crime. 

[Develop  by  repetition.] 

Closing  sentence:  Put  a  tool  in  a  child's  hand  and  teach 
him  how  to  use  it;  half  the  misery  and  hardship  of  life 
is  overcome. 
^  4.  Topic  sentence:  In  our  trade  schools  lies  the  nation's 
great  hope  of  a  truer  democracy.  It  is  not  in  lowering, 
but  in  elevating,  the  masses  that  equality  is  found.  It  is 
not  in  the  work,  but  in  the  worker,  that  success  lies. 

[Develop  by  obverse.] 

Closing  sentence:  We  shall  come  to  believe  firmly  that 
it  is  man  who  makes  the  occupation,  and  not  occupation 
the  man. 

In  a  complete  essay.  —  The  beginning.    In  long 


242  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

essays  of  several  paragraphs  or  of  many  pages,  the  open- 
ing paragraph  has  the  same  relation  to  the  whole  that 
the  opening  sentence  has  to  the  paragraph.  In  most 
essays  the  theme  is  announced  in  the  opening  paragraph. 
Below  are  four  paragraphs  found  at  the  beginning  of 
essays  on  the  topics  named.  Even  if  the  subjects  were 
not  given,  the  reader  would  know  what  they  were,  so 
perfectly  do  they  announce  the  themes:  — 

LITTLE  THINGS 

Neglect  of  small  things  is  the  rock  on  which  the  great  ma- 
jority of  the  human  race  have  split.  Human  life  consists  of  a 
succession  of  small  events,  each  of  which  is  comparatively 
unimportant,  and  yet  the  happiness  and  success  of  every 
man  depend  upon  the  manner  in  which  these  small  events  are 
dealt  with.  Character  is  built  up  on  little  things  —  little 
things  well  and  honorably  transacted.  The  success  of  a  man 
in  business  depends  on  his  attention  to  little  things.  The 
comfort  of  a  household  is  the  result  of  small  things  well  ar- 
ranged and  duly  provided  for.  Good  government  can  only  be 
accomplished  in  the  same  way  —  by  well-regulated  provisions 
for  doing  the  Httle  things.  —  Smiles. 

ANIMAL  COMMUNITIES  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE 

Man  is  commonly  called  the  social  animal,  but  he  is  not 
the  only  one  to  which  this  term  may  be  applied.  There  are 
many  others  which  possess  the  social  or  communal  life.  A 
moment's  thought  will  bring  to  mind  the  familiar  facts  of  the 
communal  life  of  the  honey-bee  and  the  ants.  And  there  are 
many  other  kinds  of  animals,  not  so  well  known  to  us,  that 
live  in  communities  or  colonies,  and  live  a  life  which  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree  is  communal  or  social.  In  this  con- 
nection we  may  use  the  term  communal  for  the  life  of  those 
animals  in  which  the  division  of  labor  is  such  that  the  indi- 
vidual is  dependent  for  its  continual  existence  on  the  com- 
munity of  the  whole.  The  term  social  life  would  refer  to  a 
lower  degree  of  mutual  aid  and  mutual  dependence.  — 
David  Starr  Jordan. 


MASS  243 

THE  CHOICE  OF  THE  COLLEGE  WOMAN 

Are  college  women  happier  or  unhappier  than  other  people? 
This  is  the  rather  delicate  and  dangerous  question  I  propose 
to  raise.  The  answer  is  easy,  but  the  reasons  for  the  answer 
are  more  subtle  and  difficult.  Inasmuch  as  men's  answers 
are  occasionally  wrong  and  women's  answers  are  invariably 
right,  while  men's  reasons  are  predominantly  right  and 
women's  reasons  are  occasionally  wrong,  I  do  not  hope  to 
change  the  opinion  of  any  of  you  about  the  answer  to  this 
question;  but  even  if  you  all  reject  my  answer,  I  may  still 
hope  to  interest  you  in  the  reasons  by  which  it  is  supported. 
—  William  DeWitt  Hyde. 

BOOKS 

The  thing  to  determine,  then,  as  one's  brain  hardens  or 
softens  is  what  the  object  of  reading  is.  It  is  not,  I  venture 
to  think,  what  used  to  be  called  the  pursuit  of  knowledge.  Of 
course  if  a  man  is  a  professional  teacher  or  a  professional 
writer,  he  must  read  for  professional  purposes,  just  as  a  coral 
insect  must  eat  to  enable  it  to  secrete  the  substances  out  of 
which  it  builds  its  branching  house.  But  I  am  not  here 
speaking  of  professional  studies,  but  of  general  reading.  I 
suppose  there  are  three  motives  for  reading  —  the  first,  purely 
pleasurable;  the  second,  intellectual;  the  third,  what  may  be 
called  ethical.  As  to  the  first,  a  man  who  reads  at  all,  reads 
just  as  he  eats,  sleeps,  and  takes  exercise,  because  he  likes  it; 
and  that  is  probably  the  best  reason  that  can  be  given  for  the 
practice.  —  A.  C.  Benson. 

Instead  of  announcing  the  theme  at  the  very  begin- 
ning of  an  essay,  sometimes  we  find  other  methods  used. 
In  essays  of  some  length,  there  may  be  an  account  of 
the  occasion  that  led  to  the  composition.  Macaulay  has 
used  this  in  opening  his  essay  on  Milton.   He  says:  — 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1823,  Mr.  Lemon,  deputy 
keeper  of  the  state  papers,  in  the  course  of  his  researches  among 
the  presses  of  his  office,  met  with  a  large  Latin  manuscript. 
With  it  were  found  the  corrected  copies  of  the  foreign  de- 


244  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

spatches  written  by  Milton,  while  he  filled  the  office  of  Sec- 
retary, and  several  papers  relating  to  the  Popish  trials  and  the 
Rye-House  Plot. 

Lamb  opens  one  of  his  essays  with  the  following  para- 
graph: — 

The  casual  sight  of  an  old  Play  Bill,  which  I  picked  up  the 
other  day  —  I  know  not  by  what  chance  it  was  preserved  so 
long  —  tempts  me  to  call  to  mind  a  few  of  the  Players,  who 
make  the  principal  figures  in  it.  It  presents  the  cast  of  parts 
in  the  "Twelfth  Night,"  at  the  old  Drury  Lane  Theatre  two- 
and-thirty  years  ago. 

The  following  is  by  Agnes  Repplier  on  "  Children's 
Poets":  — 

Now  and  then  I  hear  it  affirmed  by  sad-voiced  pessimists, 
whispering  in  the  gloom,  that  people  do  not  read  as  much  poetry 
in  our  day  as  they  did  in  our  grandfathers',  that  this  is  dis- 
tinctly the  era  of  prose,  and  that  the  poet  is  no  longer,  as 
Shelley  claimed,  the  unacknowledged  legislator  of  the  world. 
.  .  .  Yet  what  matters  it,  after  all,  while  around  us,  on  every 
side,  in  school-rooms  and  nurseries,  in  quiet  corners  and  by 
cheerful  fires,  the  children  are  reading  poetry?  —  reading 
it  with  a  joyous  enthusiasm  and  an  absolute  surrendering  of 
spirit  which  we  can  all  remember,  but  can  never  feel  again? 

So  a  pupil  might  write  on  the  tenth  of  February:  — 

The  day  that  marks  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  is  almost  here.  What  better  subject  could 
employ  our  time  than  a  brief  survey  of  the  life  of  this  first 
American? 

In  the  case  of  accurate  discussion,  such  as  is  found  in 
text-books,  or  in  essays  that  are  written  to  give  scienti- 
fic information,  the  composition  may  open  with  defini- 
tions of  the  terms  that  will  be  used.  This  method  is 
often'  employed  by  debaters,  where  accuracy  and  clear 
understanding  is  necessary. 


MASS  245 

In  the  next  paragraph  is  found  a  careful  definition  of 
the  word  essay  by  Professor  Winchester  in  his  discus- 
sion, "  The  New  Essay." 

Very  different  literary  forms  have  been  designated  by  the 
common  name  Essay.  In  strictness,  it  is  to  Montaigne  that  we 
owe  the  name  and  the  thing.  His  Essais,  excellently  translated 
by  John  Florio  in  1583,  were  at  once  popular  in  England;  and 
Bacon,  fourteen  years  later,  borrowed  their  title  for  his  fa- 
mous little  bundles  of  apothegms.  This  influence  of  the  Essais, 
continuing  into  the  next  century,  increased  with  the  liking 
for  all  things  French  after  the  Restoration  and  is  attested  by 
Cotton's  new  translation  in  1680.  .  .  .  For  two  hundred  years, 
indeed,  many  excellent  prose  papers  of  moderate  length,  written 
upon  weighty  themes,  political,  philosophical,  and  critical,  had 
appeared  as  prefaces,  letters,  pamphlets,  and  short  treatises  ; 
but  it  was  the  new  Reviews  and  Magazines,  founded  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  that  produced  the  mod- 
ern essay.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  we  have  that  extended  dis- 
cussion of  some  one  theme,  popular  in  manner  yet  accurate  in 
statement,  and  admitting  high  literary  finish,  to  which  we  now 
confine  the  name  of  essay. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Write  an  opening  paragraph  on  one  of  the  following 
subjects,  in  which  you  state  the  theme  and  enumerate 
the  chief  divisions  of  your  subject.  State  the  heads  in 
the  order  in  which  they  are  to  be  taken  up  later  on  in  the 
essay. 

1.  The  Benefits  of  Children's  Playgrounds. 

2.  The  Requisites  of  a  Good  OflSce-Boy. 

3.  What  the  Telephone  Has  Done  for  the  Country. 

4.  The  Future  Uses  of  the  Aeroplane. 

5.  Public  Baths  a  Necessity. 

2.  Write  an  opening  paragraph  on  any  one  of  the  fol- 
lowing subjects,  in  which  you  give  the  occasion  for 


246  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

writing.   The  occasion,  of  course,  will  narrate  some  cir- 
cumstance. 

1.  The  Dangers  of  Football. 

2.  The  Good  the  Humane  Society  Is  Doing. 

3.  The  Benefit  of  Wireless  Telegraphy  to  Ocean  Travel. 

4.  The  Suppression  of  Lynching. 

5.  The  Intelligence  of  Some  Animals. 

3.  Write  an  opening  paragraph  on  one  of  the  follow- 
ing subjects,  in  which  you  start  with  a  definition  of  what 
you  mean  by  your  subject.  Notice  that  in  every  topic 
given  here  there  is  a  second  meaning;  it  is  this  one,  not 
the  obvious  one,  that  you  will  discuss. 

1.  Our  Castles  in  Spain. 

2.  A  Plea  for  Tramps. 

3.  Axes  to  Grind. 

4.  When  My  Ship  Comes  In. 

5.  A  Study  of  Wall-Flowers. 

6.  The  Results  of  Grafting. 

7.  Acres  of  Diamonds. 

8.  A  Good  Safety-valve. 

9.  Sponges. 

The  end.  In  the  long  essay,  as  in  the  paragraph,  the 
end  is  even  more  important  than  the  beginning.  In  all 
essays,  where  possible,  the  closing  paragraph  or  para- 
graphs should  contain  a  strong,  clear  statement  of  the 
theme,  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter.  So  true  is 
this  that  if  one  wished  to  know  the  theme  of  an  essay,  he 
would  be  justified  in  looking  at  its  concluding  paragraph 
to  find  it. 

It  is  evident  from  the  last  paragraph  of  the  essay  on 
Milton  that  Macaulay  never  intended  it  to  be  only  a 
criticism  of  his  poetry,  though  he  has  devoted  many 
pages  to  this  discussion.  Macaulay  admired  Milton  the 


MASS  247 

man  even  more  than  Milton  the  poet.   Here  is  just  the 
last  sentence:  — 

Nor  do  we  envy  the  man  who  can  study  either  the  life  or  the 
writings  of  the  great  poet  and  patriot  without  aspiring  to 
emulate,  not  indeed  the  sublime  works  with  which  his  genius 
has  enriched  our  literature,  but  the  zeal  with  which  he  labored 
for  the  public  good,  the  fortitude  with  which  he  endured 
every  private  calamity,  the  lofty  disdain  with  which  he  looked 
down  on  temptations  and  dangers,  the  deadly  hatred  which 
he  bore  to  bigots  and  tyrants,  and  the  faith  which  he  so  sternly 
kept  with  his  country  and  with  his  fame. 

Notice  that  he  says  "  poet  and  patriot  "  —  patriot 
last;  and  then  writes  "  not,  indeed,  the  sublime  works," 
but  the  zeal,  the  fortitude,  the  lofty  disdain,  the  deadly 
hatred,  and  the  faith,  which  characterized  the  patriot. 

The  following  are  the  opening  and  closing  paragraphs 
of  an  essay  entitled  "  The  Smell  of  Earth,"  by  G.  Clarke 
Nuttall.  Notice  how  well  they  fit  together. 

A  bright  fine  evening  after  a  day  of  rain  is  one  of  Nature's 
compensations.  The  air  is  peculiarly  fresh  and  sweet,  as  though 
the  rain  had  washed  all  evil  out  of  it.  The  mind,  relieved  from 
the  depressing  influence  of  continuous  rain,  is  exhilarated,  and, 
above  all,  the  strong  smell  of  the  earth  rises  up  with  a  scent 
more  pleasing  than  many  a  fragrant  essence.  In  the  town, 
indeed,  this  earthy  smell  is  often  obscured  by  the  bricks  and 
mortar  which  cover  the  land,  and  by  the  stronger,  less  whole- 
some odors  of  human  life;  but  in  the  country  it  has  full  sway, 
and  fills  the  whole  air  with  its  presence.  Even  a  slight  shower, 
particularly  after  drought,  is  suflBcient  to  bring  out  the  sweet 
famiUar  smell  of  the  land  and  thrust  it  upon  our  notice. 

This,  then,  is  the  history  of  the  smell  of  earth  as  scientists 
have  declared  it  unto  us,  and  its  recital  serves  further  to  point 
the  moral  that  the  most  obvious,  the  most  commonplace  things 
of  everyday  life  —  things  that  we  have  always  taken  simply 
for  granted  without  question  or  interest  —  may  yet  have  a 
story  hidden  beneath  them.   Like  signposts  in  a  foreign  land. 


248  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

they  may  be  speaking,  though  in  a  language  not  always  com- 
prehended by  us,  of  the  most  fascinating  regions  —  regions 
we  may  altogether  miss  to  our  great  loss,  if  we  neglect  igno- 
rantly  the  directions,  instead  of  learning  to  comprehend  them. 

In  conclusion  of  this  discussion  of  Mass  I  would  say, 
get  your  essay  going  as  soon  as  you  can,  and  stop  when 
you  have  finished;  by  so  doing  you  will  have  important 
matters  in  those  places  that  will  emphasize  them.  Shun 
the  allurements  of  high-sounding  introductions  and  con- 
clusions. An  essay  should  be  done  much  as  a  business 
man  does  business.  He  does  not  want  the  gentleman 
who  calls  on  him  during  business  hours  to  bow  and 
scatter  compliments  before  he  takes  up  the  matter  that 
brought  him  there;  nor  does  he  care  to  see  him  swaying 
on  the  door  knob  after  the  business  is  finished.  To  the 
business  at  once,  and  leave  off  when  you  have  done. 
Introductions,  exordiums,  perorations,  and  conclusions 
are  worthless,  unless  they  are  in  reality  a  part  of  the 
discussion  and  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  the 
whole. 

EXERCISE 

Using  the  same  subjects  you  chose  in  the  last  exercise, 
write  strong  closing  paragraphs,  stating  clearly  your 
conclusions  regarding  the  three  matters  you  chose  for 
discussion. 

COHERENCE 

Coherence  is  the  second  of  the  principles  of  structure 
that  have  to  do  with  the  arrangement  of  material  in  a 
paragraph  or  an  essay.  It  is  a  difficult  principle  to  put 
into  practice.  For  one  can  make  a  beginning  and  an  end ; 
he  can  select  his  materials  so  that  there  is  unity;  but  to 
make  all  the  parts  stick  together,  to  form  and  arrange 


COHERENCE  249 

the  sentences  so  that  one  grows  naturally  from  the  pre- 
ceding and  leads  into  the  next,  requires  nice  adjustment 
of  parts,  and  rewriting  again  and  again. 

In  a  paragraph.  How  essential  coherence  in  a  para- 
graph is,  simply  to  make  the  thought  easy  to  grasp, 
may  be  seen  by  taking  a  paragraph  to  pieces  and  mix- 
ing up  its  sentences.  This  paragraph  is  about  the  origin 
and  meaning  of  the  common  term  latitude.  The  first  and 
last  sentences  here  are  the  first  and  last  as  the  paragraph 
was  written;  the  others  are  mixed  up. 

We  start  with  the  poles  as  marking  the  line  about  which 
the  earth  turns.  We  then  imagine  circles  parallel  to  this,  a 
degree  apart,  and  growing  smaller  in  size,  all  the  way  to  either 
pole.  By  their  aid  any  point  on  the  earth  can  be  described  as 
to  its  distance  from  the  middle,  or  equatorial,  line,  and  the 
distance  can  be  plotted  on  a  globe.  The  circle  midway  be- 
tween the  poles,  dividing  the  surface  into  halves,  we  agree  to 
call  the  equator.  A  degree  of  latitude  covers  about  69  miles. 
We  call  these  parallels  of  north  or  south  latitude,  and  number 
each  way,  from  equator  to  pole.  When  this  method  is  used, 
distances  are  indicated  in  degrees,  minutes,  and  seconds.  It 
is  a  trifle  longer  near  the  poles  than  near  the  equator,  because 
there  the  curve  of  the  surface  is  less. 

Coherence  is  gained  in  four  ways:  first,  by  the  order 
in  which  the  sentences  are  arranged;  second,  by  repeti- 
tion of  dominant  ideas;  third,  by  the  use  of  connec- 
tives; and  fourth,  by  the  use  of  parallel  constructions 
for  parallel  ideas. 

(i)  Order  of  sentences.  Material  that  has  been  se- 
lected with  a  careful  regard  for  the  principle  of  Unity 
is  all  informed  with  one  idea.  Yet,  though  one  thought 
runs  through  it  all  and  unites  it,  each  part  does  not 
stand  in  equally  close  relation  to  every  other,  or  to  the 
conclusion.  One  does  not  pass  from  first  to  last  of  a 
paragraph  or  of  an  essay  without  taking  the  interme- 


250  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

diate  steps,  any  more  than  one  passes  from  bank  to 
bank  of  a  stream  without  using  the  stepping  stones. 
In  the  paragraph  about  latitude,  the  starting  place 
is  the  poles,  the  end  is  the  length  of  a  degree  of  lati- 
tude. It  is  necessary  for  an  understanding  of  this  to 
proceed  step  by  step  from  the  first  thought  to  the  last  in 
a  definite  order.  The  order  in  which  it  was  written  is 
the  necessary  order:  — 

We  start  with  the  poles,  as  marking  the  line  about  which  the 
earth  turns.  The  circle  midway  between  the  poles,  dividing 
the  surface  into  halves,  we  agree  to  call  the  equator.  We  then 
imagine  circles  parallel  to  this,  a  degree  apart  and  growing 
smaller  in  size,  all  the  way  to  either  pole.  We  call  these 
parallels  of  north  or  south  latitude,  and  number  each  way 
from  equator  to  pole.  By  their  aid  any  point  on  the  earth  can 
be  described  as  to  its  distance  from  the  middle,  or  equato- 
rial, line,  and  the  distance  can  be  plotted  on  a  globe.  When 
this  method  is  used,  distances  are  indicated  in  degrees,  min- 
utes, and  seconds.  A  degree  of  latitude  covers  about  69  miles. 
It  is  a  trifle  longer  near  the  poles  than  near  the  equator,  be- 
cause there  the  curve  of  the  surface  is  less. 

{2)  Repetition.  When  the  order  has  been  determined, 
and  each  thought  seems  to  spring  from  the  thought  be- 
fore, the  next  problem  is  to  transmit  the  force  of  one  sen- 
tence on  to  the  next,  with  its  strength  undiminished.  To 
bind  them  together,  one  sentence  must  grow  out  of  some 
word  or  phrase  in  the  preceding  sentence;  then  they  can 
be  firmly  locked  together  by  the  repetition^  a  little  modi- 
fied each  time,  of  some  preceding  phrase.  Notice  how 
Van  Dyke  has  done  this  in  the  short  paragraph  that 
follows:  — 

Think,  in  the  second  place,  of  the  duty  which  men  of  moral 
principles  owe  to  society  in  regard  to  the  evils  which  corrupt 
and  degrade  it.  Of  the  existence  of  these  evils  we  need  to  be 
reminded  again  and  again,  just  because  we  are  comparatively 


COHERENCE  251 

clean  and  decent  and  upright  people.  Men  who  live  an  orderly 
life  are  in  great  danger  of  doing  nothing  else.  We  wrap  our 
virtue  up  in  little  bags  of  respectability  and  keep  it  in  the  store- 
house of  a  safe  reputation.  But  if  it  is  genuine  virtue,  it  is  worthy 
of  a  better  use  than  that.  It  is  fit,  nay  it  is  designed  and  de- 
manded, to  be  used  as  salt,  for  the  purifying  of  human  life. 

Here  "  men  of  moral  principle  "  changes  to  "  clean  and 
decent  and  upright  people,"  and  "  men  who  live  an  or- 
derly life."  This  same  idea  is  presented  by  the  word 
"  virtue  "  in  the  next  two  sentences;  and  is  repeated  in 
the  last  by  the  pronoun  "it." 

Another  paragraph  illustrating  the  same  principle  of 
binding  sentences  together  by  well-planned  repetition 
is  the  following.  Will  you  pick  out  the  words  that  lock 
the  sentences  together? 

The  remedy  for  the  constant  excess  of  party  spirit  lies,  and 
lies  alone,  in  the  courageous  independence  of  the  individual 
citizen.  The  only  way,  for  instance,  to  procure  the  party 
nomination  of  good  men,  is  for  every  self-respecting  voter  to 
refuse  to  vote  for  bad  men.  In  the  medieval  theology  the  devils 
feared  nothing  so  much  as  the  drop  of  holy  water  and  the  sign 
of  the  cross,  by  which  they  were  exorcised.  The  evil  spirits  of 
party  fear  nothing  so  much  as  bolting  and  scratching.  In  hoc 
aigno  vinces.  If  a  farmer  would  reap  a  good  crop,  he  scratches 
the  weeds  out  of  his  field.  If  we  would  have  good  men  upon  the 
ticket,  we  must  scratch  bad  men  ofiF.  If  the  scratching  breaks 
down  the  party,  let  it  break;  for  the  success  of  the  party  by 
such  means  would  break  down  the  country.  The  evil  spirits 
must  be  taught  by  means  that  they  can  understand.  "Them 
fellers"  —  said  the  captain  of  a  canal  boat  of  his  men  — 
"them  fellers  never  think  you  mean  a  thing  until  you  kick 
*em.   They  feel  that,  and  understand."  —  Curtis. 

To  accomplish  this  steady  advance  from  one  sentence 
to  the  next,  there  must  be  careful  attention  to  the  choice 
and  position  of  the  words  from  which  the  following  sen- 
tence is  to  spring.    Such  words  cannot  be  indefinite. 


252  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

mushy  words;  they  must  be  definite,  firm  words.  More- 
over, they  must  not  be  buried  out  of  sight  by  a  mass  of 
unimportant  matters;  they  must  be  so  placed  that  they 
are  unhindered,  free  to  push  forward  the  thought  toward 
its  ultimate  conclusion.  This  often  requires  inversion  in 
the  sentence.  That  phrase  which  is  the  source  of  the 
next  sentence  must  be  thrown  up  into  a  prominent  posi- 
tion; and  it  is  usually  pressed  toward  the  end  of  the  sen- 
tence, nearer  to  the  sentence  that  is  its  consequence. 
Well  chosen  words  in  well  selected  positions  are  the 
strong  links  that  bind  the  chain  of  related  sentences  into 
one  whole  united  paragraph. 

(3)  Use  of  connectives.  Not  all  sentences  permit  such 
clear  reference  as  in  these  quoted  paragraphs.  Still, 
where  the  thought  is  logical  and  clear,  the  reference 
is  never  missed;  the  binding  words  are  important  words, 
and  they  occupy  prominent  positions.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  whole  group  of  words  whose  function  is  to  make 
the  reference  sure.  They  are  pronouns.  Pronouns  re- 
fer back  and  point  forward.  Their  careful  use  is  the 
commonest  method  of  making  sure  of  reference,  and  so 
of  binding  sentences  together.  The  ones  in  common 
use  are  this,  that,  the  former,  the  latter:  the  relatives 
who,  which,  and  that;  and  the  personal  pronouns  he, 
she,  and  it.  To  these  may  be  added  some  adverbs :  here, 
there,  hence,  whence,  now,  and  then.  The  binding  force 
of  these  words  is  manifest  in  every  paragraph  of  com- 
position. 

The  following  paragraph,  from  Burke's  speech  on 
Conciliation  with  the  Colonies,  illustrates  the  use  of 
pronouns  as  words  referring  back,  and  binding  the  whole 
into  one  inseparable  unit:  — 

As  to  the  wealth  which  the  colonies  have  drawn  from  the 
sea  by  their  fisheries,  you  had  all  that  matter  fully  opened 


COHERENCE  253 

at  your  bar.  You  surely  thought  those  acquisitions  of  value,  for 
they  seemed  even  to  excite  your  envy;  and  yet  the  spirit  by 
which  that  enterprising  employment  has  been  exercised  ought 
rather,  in  my  opinion,  to  have  raised  your  esteem  and  admira- 
tion. And  pray.  Sir,  what  in  the  world  is  equal  to  it  ?  Pass  by 
the  other  parts,  and  look  at  the  manner  in  which  the  people 
of  New  England  have  of  late  carried  on  the  whale  fishery. 
Whilst  we  follow  them  among  the  tumbling  mountains  of  ice, 
and  behold  them  penetrating  into  the  deepest  frozen  recesses 
of  Hudson's  Bay  and  Davis's  Straits,  whilst  we  are  looking  for 
them  beneath  the  Arctic  circle,  we  hear  that  they  have  pierced 
into  the  opposite  region  of  polar  cold,  that  they  are  at  the  anti- 
podes, and  engaged  under  the  frozen  Serpent  of  the  south. 
Falkland  Island,  which  seemed  too  remote  and  romantic  an 
object  for  the  grasp  of  national  ambition,  is  but  a  stage  and 
resting-place  in  the  progress  of  their  victorious  industry.  Nor 
is  the  equinoctial  heat  more  discouraging  to  them  than  the 
accumulated  winter  of  both  the  poles.  We  know  that  whilst 
some  of  them  draw  the  line  and  strike  the  harpoon  on  the  coast 
of  Africa,  others  run  the  longitude  and  pursue  their  gigantic 
game  along  the  coast  of  Brazil.  No  sea  but  what  is  vexed  by 
their  fisheries;  no  climate  that  is  not  witness  to  their  toils. 
Neither  the  perseverance  of  Holland,  nor  the  activity  of  France, 
nor  the  dexterous  and  firm  sagacity  of  English  enterprise  ever 
carried  this  most  perilous  mode  of  hardy  industry  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  it  has  been  pushed  by  this  recent  people;  a  people 
who  are  still,  as  it  were,  but  in  the  gristle,  and  not  yet  hard- 
ened into  the  bone  of  manhood.  When  I  contemplate  these 
things;  when  I  know  that  the  colonies  in  general  owe  little  or 
nothing  to  any  care  of  ours,  and  that  they  are  not  squeezed 
into  this  happy  form  by  the  constraints  of  watchful  and  sus- 
picious government,  but  that,  through  a  wise  and  salutary 
neglect,  a  generous  nature  has  been  suffered  to  take  her  own 
way  to  perfection;  when  I  reflect  upon  these  effects,  when  I  see 
how  profitable  they  have  been  to  us,  I  feel  all  the  pride  of 
power  sink,  and  all  presumption  in  the  wisdom  of  human 
contrivances  melt  and  die  away  within  me.  My  rigor  relents, 
I  pardon  something  to  the  spirit  of  liberty." 

Another  group  of  words  that  give  coherence  to  a  para- 
graph is  conjunctions.    They  indicate  the  relation  be- 


254  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

tween  sentences,  and  they  point  the  direction  of  the  new 
sentence.  The  common  relations  between  sentences  in- 
dicated by  conjunctions  are  coordinative,  adversative, 
conditional,  concessive,  and  illative.  Each  young  writer 
has  usually  but  one  word,  at  the  most  two  words,  in  his 
vocabulary  to  express  each  of  these  relations.  He  knows 
and,  huU  if,  althoughy  and  therefore.  Every  person  should 
learn  from  a  grammar  the  whole  hst;  for  no  class  of 
words  indicates  clear  thinking  so  immistakably  as  con- 
junctions. 

Two  words  of  advice  should  be  given  regarding  the  use 
of  conjunctions.  If  the  thought  all  leads  one  way,  if  the 
direction  is  perfectly  clear,  there  is  no  need  of  conjunc- 
tions. It  is  when  the  course  of  the  discussion  is  winding, 
when  the  road  is  not  direct,  when  the  reader  may  lose  the 
way  without  these  guides,  that  conjunctions  should  be 
used.  Moreover,  conjunctions  are  an  annoyance  when 
not  needed.  Just  as  guideposts  along  a  road  where  there 
is  no  chance  to  leave  the  direct  path  are  useless,  and 
their  recurrence  is  a  cause  of  vexation,  so  it  is  with  un- 
necessary conjunctions.  They  attract  the  attention  to 
themselves,  and  so  draw  it  from  the  thought.  The  first 
caution  is.  Do  not  tise  conjunctions  unless  needed. 

In  the  following,  the  repetition  of  and  is  unnecessary 
and  annoying:  — 

Six  shillings  a  week  does  not  keep  body  and  soul  together 
very  unitedly.  They  want  to  get  away  from  each  other  when 
there  is  only  such  a  very  slight  bond  as  that  between  them;  and 
one  day,  I  suppose,  the  pain  and  the  dull  monotony  of  it  all 
had  stood  before  her  eyes  plainer  than  usual,  and  the  mock- 
ing spectre  had  frightened  her.  She  had  made  one  last  appeal 
to  friends,  but,  against  the  chill  wall  of  their  respectability, 
the  voice  of  the  erring  outcast  fell  unheeded;  and  then  she 
had  gone  to  see  her  child  —  held  it  in  her  arms  and  kissed 
it,  in  a  weary,  dull  sort  of  way,  and  without  betraying  any  par- 


COHERENCE  255 

ticular  emotion  of  any  kind,  and  had  left  it,  after  putting  into 
its  hand  a  penny  box  of  chocolate  she  had  bought  it,  and 
afterwards,  with  her  last  few  shillings,  had  taken  a  ticket  and 
come  down  to  Goring. 

The  other  caution  is :  When  possible^  put  the  conjunc- 
tion that  connects  the  two  sentences  into  the  body  of  the 
sentence,  rather  than  at  its  beginning.  In  this  way  its 
binding  power  is  increased.  This  rule  would  tend  to  stop 
the  use  of  and  or  but  at  the  beginning  of  a  sentence. 
Rarely  is  and  needed  in  such  a  place.  If  the  thought  goes 
straight  forward,  —  and  it  must  do  so  if  and  correctly 
expresses  the  relation,  —  there  is  usually  no  gain  in  its 
use.  However,  there  are  times  when  coordinate  thoughts 
are  so  important,  and  the  expression  of  the  coordination 
is  so  important,  that  a  sentence  beginning  with  and  is 
the  only  adequate  means  of  expressing  it.  Be  very  sure 
that  there  is  need  for  every  and  that  you  use.  The  same 
caution  may  be  given  about  but.  But  indicates  an  ab- 
rupt turn  in  the  thought.  Is  there  such  a  contrast  in  the 
thought?  If  so,  use  the  word  needed.  Some  persons  go 
so  far  as  to  say  that  these  words  should  never  begin  a  sen- 
tence. This  is  not  true.  However,  when  coordinative 
and  adversative  relations  are  to  be  expressed,  it  is  more 
pleasing  if  some  variety  can  be  obtained;  and  the  union 
is  closer  if  the  conjunction  is  placed  in  the  body  of  the 
sentence.  This  requires  the  use  of  other  words  besides 
and  and  but.  Also,  in  like  manner,  besides,  too,  never- 
theless, however,  after  all,  for  all  that,  should  be  as 
familiar  as  the  two  overworked  words,  and  and  but. 
Look  for  ways  to  bind  sentences  in  the  middle  rather 
than  at  the  end. 

(4)  Parallel  construction.  Another  method  of  secur- 
ing coherence  in  a  paragraph  is  by  the  use  of  parallel 
construction  for  parallel  thoughts.  By  parallel  construe- 


256  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

tion  is  meant  a  similar  arrangement  of  the  principal  ele- 
ments of  diferent  sentences.  If,  for  example,  subordinate 
clauses  precede  principal  clauses  in  one  sentence,  they 
shall  also  in  the  other;  if  they  follow  in  one,  they  shall 
follow  in  the  other.  If  an  active  voice  is  used  in  one, 
it  shall  be  used  in  the  other;  if  the  predicate  goes  before 
the  subject  in  one,  it  shall  in  the  other.  The  use  of 
parallel  construction  frequently  demands  repetition  of 
forms  and  even  of  identical  words  and  phrases.  It  is 
very  effective  in  giving  clearness  to  a  paragraph  and  in 
securing  coherence  of  its  parts. 

Notice  in  the  following  paragraph  that  the  order  has 
been  changed  in  the  fourth  sentence.  This  is  evidently 
done  to  avoid  the  danger  of  monotony.  Rewrite  this 
sentence  with  a  parallel  construction,  and  determine 
for  yourself  which  is  clearer  and  more  forceful. 

(1)  If  we  wish  to  know  the  other  planets  in  our  solar  sys- 
tem, or  the  arrangement  of  the  fixed  stars,  we  study  astro- 
nomy. (2)  If  we  would  learn  the  laws  and  uses  of  electricity, 
we  turn  to  physics.  (3)  If  we  desire  knowledge  of  the  ancient 
history  of  our  earth,  of  the  growth  of  its  lands  and  of  the  ani- 
mals and  plants  of  long  ago,  we  study  geology.  (4)  Should  our 
object  be  to  understand  animals  or  plants  in  a  thorough  way, 
zoology  or  botany  would  be  our  theme.  (5)  But  our  purpose  is 
to  know  the  earth  as  a  whole.  (6)  Land  and  sea,  air  and  rock, 
beast  and  tree  combine  to  form  it;  and  we  give  some  study  to 
each,  not  to  know  all  about  any  one,  but  to  see  how  each  con- 
trols the  rest,  and  how  all  work  together.  (7)  This  is  the  science 
of  geography.  (8)  And  because  we  deal  with  the  natural  earth 
and  not  with  its  pohtical  provinces,  we  call  our  subject  Physi- 
cal Geography. 

In  his  address  on  "  The  Pubhc  Duty  of  Educated 
Men,"  Curtis  says,  — 

I  know  —  no  man  better  —  how  hard  it  is  for  earnest  men 
to  separate  their  country  from  their  party,  or  their  reUgion 


COHERENCE  257 

from  their  sect.  But  nevertheless  the  welfare  of  the  country 
is  dearer  tKan  the  mere  victory  of  party,  as  truth  is  more  pre- 
cious than  the  interest  of  any  sect.  You  will  hear  this  patriot- 
ism scorned  as  an  impracticable  theory,  as  the  dream  of  a 
cloister,  as  the  whim  of  a  fool.  But  such  was  the  folly  of  the 
Spartan  Leonidas,  staying  with  his  three  hundred  the  Persian 
horde  and  teaching  Greece  the  self-reliance  that  saved  her. 
Such  was  the  folly  of  the  Swiss  Arnold  von  Winkelried,  gather- 
ing into  his  own  breast  the  host  of  Austrian  spears,  making  his 
dead  body  the  bridge  of  victory  for  his  countrymen.  Such  was 
the  folly  of  the  American  Nathan  Hale,  gladly  risking  the 
seeming  disgrace  of  his  name,  and  grieving  that  he  had  but 
one  life  to  give  for  his  country.  Such  are  the  beacon  lights  of 
a  pure  patriotism  that  burn  forever  in  men's  memories  and 
answer  each  other  through  the  illuminated  ages. 

Would  you  wish  to  change  one  sentence  of  this?  Read 
again  the  paragraph  on  the  character  of  Milton,  found 
on  page  207.  The  following  paragraph  is  from  Van 
Dyke's  sermon  on  Salt:  — 

There  is  a  loftier  ambition  than  merely  to  stand  high  in  the 
world.  It  is  to  stoop  down  and  lift  mankind  a  little  higher. 
There  is  a  nobler  character  than  that  which  is  merely  incor- 
ruptible. It  is  the  character  which  acts  as  an  antidote  and  pre- 
ventive of  corruption.  Fearlessly  to  speak  the  words  which 
bear  witness  to  righteousness  and  truth  and  purity;  patiently 
to  do  the  deeds  which  strengthen  virtue  and  kindle  hope  in 
your  fellow-men;  generously  to  lend  a  hand  to  those  who  are 
trying  to  climb  upward;  faithfully  to  give  your  support  and 
your  personal  help  to  the  efforts  which  are  making  to  elevate 
and  purify  the  social  life  of  the  world,  —  that  is  what  it  means 
to  have  salt  in  your  character.  And  that  is  the  way  to  make 
your  life  interesting  and  savory  and  powerful.  The  men  that 
have  been  happiest,  and  the  men  that  are  the  best  remem- 
bered, are  the  men  that  have  done  good. 

The  fifth  sentence  of  this  paragraph  from  Van  Dyke 
illustrates  perfectly  the  use  of  parallel  construction  in 
sentences. 


258  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

The  commonest  offenses  against  this  principle  of  paral- 
lel construction  in  sentences  are  linking  (l)  an  infinitive 
with  a  gerund,  (2)  a  participle  with  a  finite  verb,  (3)  an 
active  with  a  passive  voice,  (4)  a  phrase  with  a  clause. 
The  following  are  illustrations  of  these  errors. 

Incorrect:  You  cannot  persuade  him  to  go  and  into  buying 
what  he  does  not  want. 
Correct:  You  cannot  persuade  him  to  go  and  to  buy  what 
he  does  not  want. 
Incorrect:  Thus  he  spoke,  and  turning  to  the  door. 
Correct:  Thus  he  spoke,  and  turned  to  the  door. 
Incorrect:  The  king  began  to  force  the  collection  of  duties, 
and  an  army  was  sent  by  him  to  execute  his  wishes. 
Correct:  The  king  began  to  force  the  collection  of  duties 
and  serU  an  army  to  execute  his  wishes. 
Incorrect:  He  was  resolved  to  use  patience  and  that  he  would 
often  exercise  charity. 
Correct:  He  was  resolved  that  he  would  use  patience  and 
that  he  would  often  exercise  charity. 

Such  sentences  as  the  incorrect  ones  above  are  offen- 
sive to  the  ear;  and  were  they  as  long  as  the  sentences 
below,  they  would  not  be  clear.  However,  Burke  made 
no  mistake  in  the  use  of  parallel  constructions;  and  these 
sentences  of  his  illustrate  how  helpful  the  device  may 
be:  — 

1.  You  cannot  persuade  them  to  bum  their  books  of  curious 
science;  to  banish  their  lawyers  from  their  courts  of  laws; 
or  to  quench  the  lights  of  their  assemblies  by  refusing  to 
choose  those  persons  who  are  best  read  in  their  privileges. 

2.  For  though  rebellion  is  declared,  it  is  not  proceeded  against 
as  such,  nor  have  any  steps  been  taken  towards  the  appre- 
hension or  conviction  of  any  individual  offender,  either 
on  our  late  or  our  former  Address;  but  modes  of  public 
coercion  have  been  adopted,  and  such  as  have  much  more 
resemblance  to  a  sort  of  qualified  hostility  towards  an 
independent  power  than  the  punishment  of  rebellious 
subjects. 


COHERENCE  259 

3.  My  Resolutions,  therefore,  mean  TO  establish  the  equity 
and  justice  of  a  taxation  of  America  by  grant  and  not  by 
imposition;  TO  MARK  the  legal  competency  of  the  colony 
Assemblies  for  the  support  of  their  government  in  peace, 
and  for  public  aids  in  time  of  war;  TO  acknowledge  that 
this  legal  competency  has  had  a  dutiful  and  beneficial  ex- 
ercise; and  that  experience  has  shown  the  benefit  of  their 
grants,  and  the  futility  of  Parliamentary  taxation  as  a 
method  of  supply. 

In  the  second  sentence  Burke  has  used  a  passive  voice 
when  it  would  certainly  be  more  elegant  to  use  the  ac- 
tive. "  Is  proceeded  against "  is  surely  awkward;  but 
for  uniformity  and  the  resulting  clearness  he  has  re- 
tained the  passive.  In  the  last  sentence  the  infinitives 
"  to  establish,"  "  to  mark,"  and  "  to  acknowledge  **  are 
in  the  same  construction;  they  are  objects  of  "  mean." 
Then  comes  a  change  of  form  to  show  that  the  clauses 
"  that  this  legal  competency  has  had,"  etc.,  and  "  that 
experience  has  shown,"  etc.,  are  in  the  same  relation 
to  the  infinitive  "  to  acknowledge."  Though  the  last 
clause,  by  reason  of  the  punctuation,  looks  correlative 
with  the  others,  it  is  not  related  as  object  to  the  verb 
"  mean,"  as  the  others  are,  but  is  the  object  of  "  to  ac- 
knowledge." There  could  hardly  be  a  better  example  of 
the  value  of  parallel  construction  for  the  purpose  of 
avoiding  confusion  and  linking  together  parts  that  are 
related. 

Parallel  construction  is  often  used  in  balanced  sen- 
tences. We  call  a  sentence  balanced  when  one  part  is 
balanced  against  another  —  noun  against  noun,  adjective 
against  adjective,  phrase  against  phrase.  In  the  follow- 
ing from  Newman,  the  balancing  of  parts  is  admirable. 

Inebriated  with  the  cup  of  insanity,  and  flung  upon  the 
stream  of  recklessness,  she  dashes  down  the  cataract  of  non- 
sense and  whirls  amid  the  pools  of  confusion. 


260  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

Balanced  sentences  are  especially  suited  to  express 
contrast,  where  two  ideas  are  sharply  opposed  to  each 
other.   Macaulay  has  this  fine  example:  — 

She  seems  to  have  written  about  the  Elizabethan  age,  be- 
cause she  had  read  much  about  it ;  she  seems,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  have  read  a  little  about  the  age  of  Addison,  because  she  had 
determined  to  write  about  it. 

The  danger  in  the  use  of  balanced  sentences  is  excess. 
Macaulay  is  very  fond  of  brilliant  contrasts;  but  is  a 
very  common  word  with  him.  In  some  cases  the  reader 
feels  that  for  the  sake  of  the  striking  contrast  he  has 
forced  the  truth.  Balanced  sentences  are  palpably  arti- 
ficial, and  should  be  used  but  sparingly. 

EXERCISE 

1.  Connect  each  group  of  sentences  into  one  coherent 
sentence  by  the  use  of  relative  pronouns,  keeping  some 
one  idea  prominent:  — 

1.  He  met  a  number  of  people.  He  knew  none  of  them.  He 
was  surprised  somewhat  at  this. 

2.  There  were  rows  of  new  houses.  He  had  never  seen  them 
before.  The  old  houses  had  disappeared.  He  had  once 
known  them  well. 

3.  Annie  began  to  cry,  "Dilly,  dilly,  einy,  einy,  ducksey.'* 
The  tune  seems  to  be  accepted  as  a  national  duck's  anthem. 
They  should  have  been  soothed  by  it,  but  were  not. 

4.  The  colonel  was  a  stout  old  man.  He  had  seen  service  in 
several  wars.  His  bearing  was  still  distinguished  in  spite 
of  the  cane.   He  was  now  compelled  to  carry  a  cane. 

5.  The  mirth  of  the  company  around  the  kitchen  stove  was 
occasioned  by  anecdotes.  A  swarthy  little  Frenchman 
was  giving  his  love-adventures.  He  had  a  dry,  weazen 
face  and  large  whiskers.  At  the  end  of  each  story,  there 
was  one  of  those  bursts  of  honest,  unceremonious  laughter. 
A  man  indulges  in  that  kind  of  laughter  in  a  viUage  inn. 


COHERENCE  261 

6.  Scott's  father  used  to  be  vexed  with  him  for  his  wander- 
ing propensity.  He  shook  his  head.  He  fancied  the  boy 
would  make  nothing  but  a  peddler. 

2.  Connect  the  following  groups  of  sentences  into  one 
coherent  sentence  by  the  use  of  conjunctions,  changing 
the  order  if  need  be  and  keeping  prominent  what  you 
think  should  be  important:  — 

1.  Simplicity  of  style  in  writing  is  desirable.  We  must  have 
a  right  understanding  of  the  word.  The  side  of  a  grain 
elevator  has  simplicity.   It  is  not  in  itself  admirable. 

2.  The  simplicity  of  a  flower  is  lovely.  It  has  an  interesting 
simplicity.   Such  simplicity  is  to  be  desired. 

3.  The  child  stopped  crying.  It  knew  it  was  of  no  use  to  cry. 
The  matter  was  past  mending.  There  was  nothing  to  do 
but  make  the  best  of  the  situation. 

4.  Night  was  coming  on.  A  storm  threatened.  It  seemed  at 
first  best  not  to  continue  our  journey.  Uncle  objected  to 
our  stopping.  He  urged  us  to  push  on  to  higher  ground. 
The  camping  facilities  were  better  there. 

5.  This  evidently  was  the  best  course  to  pursue.  We  pressed 
on  to  the  top  of  a  hill.  We  were  very  tired.  We  found  a 
gate  to  an  enclosure.  We  quickly  pitched  our  tent.  The 
rain  was  beginning  to  fall  heavily. 

6.  Lee  had  spent  years  of  his  professional  life  in  Northern 
communities.  He  was  always  a  close  observer  of  men 
and  things.  He  well  understood  the  vast  resources  of 
that  section;  he  knew  the  hardy,  industrious  character 
of  its  people.  He  justly  weighed  their  strength  as  a 
military  power. 

3.  Re-write  the  paragraphs  you  wrote  on  "The 
Value  of  Trade  Schools,"  making  a  special  effort  to 
bind  the  sentences  tight  together.  You  may  have  to 
change  the  order  many  times,  if  you  wish  to  make  the 
relation  between  sentences  close  and  clear  and  firm. 
First,  think  of  the  position  of  your  strong  words;  then, 
watch  carefully  your  connectives. 

4.  Distinguish    between  the  parallel  and  balanced 


262  FOUMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

structures.  Tell  why  you  call  one  balanced  and  another 
parallel.  Also  tell  what  office  each  performs  in  the  sen- 
tence: — 

1.  A  foot  more  light,  a  step  more  true, 

Ne'er  from  the  heath-flower  dashed  the  dew. 

2.  My  country  is  the  world;  my  countrymen,  all  mankind. 

3.  He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than  the  mighty;  and 
he  that  ruleth  his  spirit,  than  he  that  taketh  a  city. 

4.  There  were  gentlemen  and  there  were  seamen  in  the  navy 
of  Charles  II.  But  the  seamen  were  not  gentlemen,  and 
the  gentlemen  were  not  seamen. 

5.  The  Puritan  hated  bear-baiting,  not  because  it  gave  pain 
to  the  bear,  but  because  it  gave  pleasure  to  the  spectators. 

6.  With  malice  towards  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firm- 
ness in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us 
finish  the  work  we  are  in. 

7.  If  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him;  if  he  thirst,  give  him 
drink. 

8.  Fire  is  the  test  of  gold;  adversity,  of  strong  men. 

9.  Over  the  meadows  brown  and  bare. 
Over  the  harvest  fields  forsaken. 
Silent,  soft,  and  slow  descends  the  snow. 

10.  Philosophy  we  may  learn  from  books;  common  sense  from 
folks. 

11.  It  is  not  luck,  but  labor,  that  makes  men.  Luck,  says  an 
American  writer,  is  ever  waiting  for  something  to  turn 
up;  Labor,  with  keen  eye  and  strong  will,  always  turns 
up  something.  Luck  lies  in  bed,  and  wishes  the  postman 
would  bring  him  news  of  a  legacy;  Labor  turns  out  at 
six,  and  with  busy  pen  or  ringing  hammer  lays  the  founda- 
tion of  a  competence.  Luck  whines;  Labor  whistles. 
Luck  relies  on  chance;  Labor,  on  character.  Luck  slips 
downward  to  self-indulgence;  Labor  strives  upward,  and 
aspires  to  independence.  ■ —  Smiles. 

5.  Write  a  paragraph  in  parallel  construction  on  the 
following  topic:  "How  marvellous  have  been  the  in- 
ventions of  man  since  he  learned  the  control  of  steam!  '* 
Give  at  least  five  wonderful  things  made  possible  by 


COHERENCE  263 

steam.  Then  follow  these  with  a  concluding  sentence, 
repeating  the  topic  and  summarizing  the  whole. 

Or,  if  you  prefer,  write  upon  the  **  Value  of  Elec- 
tricity "  or  the  "  Value  of  Education."  Remember  that 
first  there  should  be  a  good  topic  sentence,  followed  by 
sentences  of  detail  in  parallel  construction,  closing  with 
a  strong  sentence  repeating  the  topic  and  summarizing 
the  paragraph. 

6.  For  a  paragraph  using  balanced  sentences,  choose 
two  topics  in  strong  contrast,  such  as  "  Poverty  and 
Riches,"  "  Self-ReHance  and  Weakness,"  or  *'  Tem- 
perance and  Intemperance."  Announce  the  theme  in  the 
first  sentence;  give  the  body  of  the  paragraph  in  bal- 
anced sentences;  conclude  with  repetition. 

Other  topics  that  could  easily  and  powerfully  be 
treated  by  balanced  sentences  are,  *'  Washington  and 
Lincoln,"  "  Lee  and  Jackson,"  "  Grant  and  McClellan," 
or  any  two  poets,  authors,  artists,  statesmen,  business 
men. 

In  the  complete  essay.  To  secure  coherence' among 
sentences  in  a  paragraph,  a  writer  first  arranges  his 
thoughts  so  that  they  follow  naturally  and  in  order. 
Then,  to  bind  his  sentences  together  into  one  connected 
whole,  he  relies  upon  certain  strong  words  and  upon 
those  other  words,  whose  use  always  is  to  connect  — 
pronouns  and  conjunctions.  To  secure  coherence  among 
the  paragraphs  of  an  essay,  he  still  depends  first  upon 
the  orderly  sequence  of  his  thoughts,  as  expressed  in 
the  outline.  Then,  as  in  the  ca^e  of  words  connecting 
sentences,  he  uses  sentences  or  sometimes  whole  para- 
graphs to  make  the  connection  between  the  big  di- 
visions of  the  essay.  Such  sentences  or  paragraphs  are 
called  sentences  or  paragraphs  of  summary  or  transition. 


264  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

A  summary  gathers  up  what  has  been  said  on  a  topic, 
much  Hke  a  conclusion  to  a  theme;  a  transition  shows 
the  relation  between  the  topic  already  discussed  and  the 
one  next  to  be  treated.  A  summary  at  the  conclusion  of 
any  division  of  the  whole  subject  is  like  a  seat  on  a  moun- 
tain path,  conveniently  arranged  to  give  the  climber  a 
needed  rest,  and  to  spread  out  at  his  feet  the  features  of 
the  landscape  through  which  he  has  made  his  way.  A 
summary  is  a  survey  of  the  discussion  up  to  that  point, 
and  makes  the  reader  ready  for  the  next  stage  of  the  ad- 
vance. At  the  end  of  the  summary  there  is  frequently 
a  transition,  either  a  few  sentences,  or  sometimes  a 
short  paragraph.  The  sentence  or  paragraph  of  transi- 
tion is  more  frequent  than  the  paragraph  that  sum- 
marizes. 

Examples  of  summaries  and  transitions  are  frequent 
in  Macaulay  and  Burke.  Here  are  some  sentences  from 
Burke's  speech  on  Conciliation  with  the  American  Col- 
onies. They  indicate  clearly  what  he  will  discuss  and 
at  every  point  they  recall  what  has  been  discussed. 
These  sentences  are  clearly  summaries  of  what  has  been 
said,  and  transitions  to  what  will  be  said.  It  would  not 
seem  very  hard  to  fill  up  this  simple  outline.  After  his 
Introduction,  the  next  paragraph  (IF  15)  opens  with  — 

The  first  thing  that  we  have  to  consider  with  regard  to  the 
nature  of  the  object  is  —  the  number  of  people  in  the  colo- 
nies, — 

and  he  gives  two  paragraphs  to  the  treatment  of  popu- 
lation. 

^  17.  But  the  'population  of  this  country,  the  great  and  growing 
population,  though  a  very  important  consideration,  will 
lose  much  of  its  weight  if  not  combined  with  other  cir- 
cumstances. The  commerce  of  your  colonies  is  out  of  all 
proportion  beyond  the  numbers  of  the  people. 


*  COHERENCE  W5 

^  36.  There  is  a  third  consideration  concerning  this  object 
which  serves  to  determine  my  opinion  on  the  sort  of 
poHcy  which  ought  to  be  pursued  in  the  management  of 
America,  even  more  than  its  population  and  its  commerce 
—  I  mean  its  temper  and  character. 

^  37.  In  this  character  of  the  Americans,  a  love  of  freedom 
is  the  predominating  feature  which  marks  and  distin- 
guishes the  whole. 

^  44.  Then,  Sir,  from  these  six  sources  —  of  descent,  of  form 
oi  government,  of  religion  in  the  Northern  provinces, 
of  manners  in  the  Southern,  of  education,  of  the  re- 
moteness of  situation  from  the  first  mover  of  govern- 
ment —  from  all  these  causes  a  fierce  spirit  of  liberty 
has  grown  up.  It  has  grown  with  the  growth  of  the 
people  in  your  colonies,  and  increased  with  the  increase 
of  their  wealth;  a  spirit  that  unhappily  meeting  with  an 
exercise  of  power  in  England  which,  however  lawful,  is 
not  reconcilable  to  any  ideas  of  liberty,  much  less  with 
theirs,  has  kindled  this  flame  that  is  ready  to  con- 
sume us. 

%  45.  I  do  not  mean  to  commend  either  the  spirit  in  this 
excess,  or  the  moral  causes  which  produce  it.  Perhaps 
a  more  smooth  and  accommodating  spirit  of  freedom 
in  them  would  be  more  acceptable  to  us.  Perhaps 
ideas  of  liberty  might  be  desired  more  reconcilable 
with  an  arbitrary  and  boundless  authority.  Perhaps 
we  might  wish  the  colonists  to  be  persuaded  that  their 
liberty  is  more  secure  when  held  in  trust  for  them  by 
us,  as  their  guardians  during  a  perpetual  minority, 
than  with  any  part  of  it  in  their  own  hands.  The  ques- 
tion is,  not  whether  their  spirit  deserves  praise  or 
blame,  but  —  tohat,  in  the  name  of  God,  shall  we  do 
with  it  ? 

Paragraph  44  is  a  summary  of  one  subdivision  of  the 
main  theme;  and  it  prepares  for  the  transition  found  in 
the  next  paragraph,  when  he  asks,  "What  shall  we  do 
with  it.J^  "  No  better  piece  for  study  of  summaries  and 
transitions  could  be  found  than  this  whole  oration. 


f0e  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 


EXERCISE 

1.  Find  in  this  chapter  on  Exposition  two  examples 
of  transition,  one  a  sentence  and  one  a  paragraph. 

2.  Find  in  this  chapter  two  examples  of  summary, 
one  a  sentence  and  one  a  paragraph. 

3.  Find  in  any  text-book  you  are  using  examples  of 
summary  and  transition.  Such  books  as  physical 
geographies,  histories,  text-books  in  science  are  the 
most  likely  to  furnish  you  what  you  wish.  Bring 
these  examples  to  class  and  be  prepared  to  tell  what 
thoughts  have  been  linked  together  by  the  transition  sen- 
tences; and  to  show  that  the  author  has  summarized 
his  work  in  the  order  in  which  it  was  taken  up  in  the 
discussion. 

4.  Take  up  the  essay  on  **  The  Value  of  Trade 
Schools."  All  the  paragraphs  have  been  written,  and  the 
sequence  is  logical.  There  remains  yet  one  more  thing 
to  do.  To  finish  up  the  work  so  that  it  is  smooth,  and 
one  thought  leads  imperceptibly  into  the  next,  there 
should  be  made  sentences  of  transition.  This  is  the  final 
touch  which  a  real  artist  gives  to  his  work.  Notice  how 
much  the  composition  may  be  improved  by  introducing 
or  changing  sentences  for  the  opening  of  the  successive 
paragraphs :  — 

Part  I.   The  Value  of  Trade  Schools  to  the 
Individual 

^  1.  A  greater  choice  of  occupation  will  be  open  to  young 
men. 

Transition  from  1  to  S :  Not  only  then  will  a  young 
man  find  open  to  him  more  opportunities  for  earning 
a  living,  but  also  he  will  find  himself  well  prepared  to 
meet  those  opportunities  after  his  course  of  training  re- 
ceived in  the  trade  school. 


COHERENCE  267 

^  2.  The  skill  of  the  wage-earner  will  be  increased. 

Transition  from  2  to  3:  As  a  result  of  his  being  well 
prepared  for  the  trade  he  is  to  follow,  the  young  laborer 
may  take  his  place  among  other  wage-earners  and  receive 
"an  honest  day's  pay  for  an  honest  day's  labor." 
1[  3.  The  workman  can  command  a  self-sustaining  wage 
earlier  than  by  the  apprentice-plan. 

Transition:  Perhaps  of  more  importance  than  the  choice 
of  an  occupation,  or  increased  skill  in  work,  or  the  ready 
wages  given  to  the  graduate  of  a  trade  school,  is  the  fact 
that  his  future  happiness  and  success  in  life  often  depend 
upon  that  training. 
^  4.  Better  homes  and  a  more  intelligent  class  of  laborers 
will  be  the  result  of  the  training  obtained  at  a  trade 
school. 
Transition  from  Part  I  to  Part  II:   Not  to  the  workman 
alone  comes  the  entire  value  from  our  trade  schools.   Our  na- 
tion also  derives  its  benefit.  As  each  individual  stone  in  a 
wall,  exact,  strongly  fitted  to  its  place,  bearing  its  share  of 
weight,  helps  to  form  the  whole,  so  each  individual  in  a  nation 
performs  his  part  in  making  that  nation  uniform,  strong,  and 
reliable.  We  look  now  to  the  final  value  which  America  may 
obtain  from  her  trade  schools. 

Part  II.  The  Value  of  Trade  Schools  to  the  Nation 

^  1.  The  standard  of  labor  will  be  raised. 

Transition:  Again  we   shall  note  a  further  result  of 

our  improved  condition,  when  we  measure  the  quality 

and  excellence  of  our  labor  output  with  that  of  other 

nations. 

^  2.  The  quality  of  our  industries  will  be  unexcelled  by  that 

of  other  nations. 

Transition:   Were  all  other  reasons  lacking  for  prompt- 
ing the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  trade  schools, 
the  fact  that  useful  occupation  keeps  down  poverty  and 
crime  would  be  alone  suflScient. 
^  3.  The  number  in  our  reform  schools  and  prisons  will  be 
lessened. 

Transition:   The  last  and  most  important  value  to  the 
nation  remains.    Our  nation,  founded  by  the  people  and 


268  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

for  the  people,  must  forever   keep   democracy   as  her 
dominant  note.   Whatever  keeps  this  tone  vibrating  in 
the  hearts  of  this  people  must  be  fostered  and  encour- 
aged. 
^  4.  A  truer  democracy  will  prevail. 

5.  Now  take  one  of  your  own  outlines  and  write 
transition  sentences  or  phrases  connecting  the  different 
topics.  Some  simple  phrases  that  will  help  you  to  think 
of  better  ones  are:  in  addition  to  what  lias  been  saidy  of 
not  less  value f  not  only  .  .  .  but  also,  of  equal  importance, 
perhaps  the  most  weighty  consideration y  further,  leaving 
out  of  the  account. 

6.  For  your  last  exercise  in  Exposition,  outline  an 
essay  of  not  less  than  ten  paragraphs.  Have  it  in  two 
large  divisions,  so  that  a  paragraph  of  summary  will  be 
needed  at  the  end  of  the  first  division,  followed  by  sen- 
tences indicating  the  transition  to  the  second  large 
division.  This  transition  may  well  be  a  short  paragraph. 
Indicate  clearly  in  your  brief  the  transition  from  one 
paragraph  to  the  next.  These  transitions  may  be  but 
a  single  word,  or  they  may  be  complete  sentences.  In 
the  composition,  strive  to  use  all  varieties  of  para- 
graph structure.  Make  this  exercise  a  test  of  all  you 
have  learned  in  this  chapter  on  Exposition. 

SUBJECTS   FOR    EXPOSITION 

1.  Boys  and  girls  should  learn  to  swim. 

2.  Who  is  who  in  high  school. 

3.  How  my  shoes  are  made. 

4.  Life  in  a  lighthouse. 

5.  The  cause  of  the    .  .  .     strike  in    .... 

6.  A  model  factory  (cotton,  breakfast  food,  clothing,  or  the 
like). 

7.  The  work  of  the  fire  patrol  boats. 

,  8.  Good-bye,  Santa  Claus  (apphcable  to  leaving  off  any 


SUBJECTS  FOR   EXPOSITION  269 

childish  illusion,  such  as  belief  in  fairies,  ghosts,  brownies, 
or  the  like). 
9.  How  our  dog  lies  down. 

10.  Why  my  best  friend  is  a  favorite. 

11.  What  colors  mean  to  me. 

12.  Life  on  a  canal  boat. 

13.  How  to  make  dish-washing  a  pleasant  task. 

14.  Should  the  cigarette  law  be  enforced? 

15.  The  advantages  (or  disadvantages)  of  the  boy  or  the  girl 
who  works  his  way. 

16.  How  I  made  a  model  for  an  air-ship. 

17.  Learn  to  control  your  temper. 

18.  My  pet  diversion. 

19.  What  good  citizenship  means. 

20.  Neither  a  borrower  nor  a  lender  be. 

21.  What  the  study  of  English  is  doing  for  me. 

22.  How  a  great  newspaper  is  printed. 

23.  The  passing  of  the  sweat  shop. 

24.  Little  products  from  big  factories  (pins,  nails,  wire,  but- 
tons, hardware,  novelties,  or  the  like). 

25.  Laying  a  tile  floor. 

26.  Should  the  curfew  ordinance  be  enforced? 

27.  How  a  cow  chews  her  cud. 

28.  To  be  right  is  better  than  to  be  president. 

29.  There  are  a  number  of  ways  one  can  be  useful. 

30.  The  work  of  the  lifesaving  station  at  ...  . 

31.  What  irrigation  is  doing  for  .  .  .  (applicable  to  the  fruit 
orchards  of  Idaho,  Washington,  or  other  places). 

32.  How  to  fly  a  kite. 

33.  The  value  of  fresh  air. 

34.  Not  any  part  of  any  animal  is  wasted  in  the  packing  houses. 

35.  What  I  saw  of  the  great  car  strike  in  .  .  . 

36.  One  can  cultivate  good  humor. 

37.  How  to  build  a  camp  fire. 

38.  My  high  school  training  is  making  a  better  citizen  of  me. 

39.  The  newest  invention. 

40.  The  value  of  a  pure  water  supply. 

41.  How  we  are  decorating  our  public  buildings  (suggesting 
mural  decorations, especially  those  using  historical  topics). 

42.  Breaking  the  colt. 

43.  What  the  recreation  pier  has  done. 


270  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

44.  When  the  divers  laid  the  foundation  of  the  great  pier. 

45.  A  good  way  to  make  bread. 

46.  How  to  use  a  fireless  cooker. 

47.  The  vagaries  of  my  fountain  pen. 

48.  The  construction  of  a  fountain  pen. 

49.  School  examinations  encourage  cheating. 

50.  It  is  often  said  that  tennis  is  our  best  game. 

51.  The  ideal  student  is  the  high-grade,  all-around  fellow. 


CHAPTER  VI 
FORMS   OF   DISCOURSE  {Continued) 

ARGUMENTATION 

Argumentation  has  been  defined  as  that  form  of  dis- 
course the  purpose  of  which  is  to  prove  the  truth  or  falsity 
of  some  proposition.  To  accomplish  its  ends  it  employs 
the  other  forms  of  discourse  already  studied  —  narra- 
tion, description,  and  exposition;  yet  it  is  none  of  these, 
since  the  purpose  of  argumentation  is  to  prove  or  to 
convince.  If  a  person  were  arguing  in  favor  of  a  change 
in  the  rules  of  football,  he  might  with  good  effect 
tell  of  a  cruel  accident  he  had  seen  in  a  game;  he  might 
draw  a  picture  of  the  agony  of  the  victim;  and  he  might, 
then,  explain  how  a  slight  change  in  the  playing  rules 
would  have  obviated  the  unfortunate  occurrence. 
After  this  a  person  would  naturally  take  the  next  step 
and  give  proofs  that  a  change  was  needed,  with  the  hope 
that  he  might  persuade  the  people  to  do  something.  In- 
deed, it  is  seldom  that  any  one  tries  to  convince  another 
of  a  truth  without  wishing  at  the  same  time  to  arouse 
him  to  action.  A  girl  tries  to  convince  her  mother  that 
she  needs  a  new  pair  of  shoes;  after  stating  her  reasons 
for  her  need,  she  begs  her  mother  to  buy  them.  A  boy 
urges  his  father  to  buy  him  a  pony;  he  brings  forward 
every  reason  he  can  think  of  to  prove  that  it  would  be  a 
judicious  expenditure  of  money.  From  the  tramp  at  the 
door,  urging  many  reasons  for  his  present  need,  up  to 
the  crowned  monarch  displaying  the  reasons  why  his 
nation  should  adopt  a  certain  policy,  all  men  daily  en- 


272  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

deavor  to  convince  and  to  persuade;  and  they  levy  upon 
all  the  rich  resources  of  language  to  uphold  the  pro- 
position they  aflSrm. 

Although  argumentation  calls  to  its  aid  all  the  other 
forms  of  discourse,  exposition  renders  the  greatest  as- 
sistance; for  reasonable  men  are  usually  convinced 
when  a  proposition  has  been  clearly  explained.  Any 
reasonable  man  would  conclude  from  reading  your  essay 
on  "  The  Value  of  Trade  Schools,"  that  the  education 
offered  in  them  should  be  introduced  into  the  public 
schools.  The  simple  explanation  of  their  value  would 
convince  him  that  this  work  should  be  taken  up.  So  ex- 
position approaches  very  near  to  argumentation,  and 
often  forms  a  large  part  of  it. 

The  following  brief  will  show  how  easy  it  sometimes 
is  to  pass  from  exposition  to  argumentation.  Take 
the  essay  on  "  The  Value  of  Trade  Schools."  Change 
the  theme  to  this:  "  Industrial  Training  should  be 
introduced  into  the  public  schools  of  the  United  States." 
Then,  instead  of  giving  an  explanation  of  the  advan- 
tages of  industrial  training,  the  brief  would  be  con- 
structed to  prove  the  new  proposition,  and  would  be 
as  follows:  — 

Industrial  Training  should  be  introduced  into  the  public 
schools  of  the  United  States;  for 
I.  It  would  benefit  the  individual;  for 

A.  It  would  open  to  him  whatever  occupation  he  wished. 

B.  It  would  enable  him  to  meet  the  demand  for  skilled 
workmen. 

C.  It  would  prevent  his  becoming  discouraged;  for 
1.  He  would  have  increased  knowledge  and  skill. 

D.  It  would  enable  him  to  advance  rapidly  in  the  indus- 
trial world. 

n.  It  would  benefit  the  nation;  for 
A.  It  would  dignify  labor. 


ARGUMENTATION  273 

B.  In  creating  American  skill,  it  would  honor  the  people. 

C.  In  putting  a  tool  in  the  child's  hand,  it  would  over- 
come poverty  and  crime. 

D.  It  would  encourage  a  truer  democracy. 
III.  Conclusion. 

Of  all  the  forms  of  discourse,  argumentation  adheres 
most  closely  to  definite  rules.  While,  in  the  other  forms 
of  discourse,  many  rules  have  been  given,  leading  toward 
success,  it  is  well  known  that  exceptional  authors  often 
adopt  unusual  methods.  This  they  may  not  so  safely 
do  in  argumentation;  in  this  form  of  discourse  the  rules 
are  fixed,  and  success  is  most  surely  obtained  by  fol- 
lowing them  closely. 

The  method  of  procedure  in  argument  is  as  definite 
as  it  is  in  a  demonstration  in  geometry.  With  axioms 
the  student  of  geometry  establishes  certain  other  truths, 
called  theorems;  and  then  with  axioms  and  already 
proved  theorems,  he  goes  on  to  demonstrate  new  propo- 
sitions. The  writer  of  argument  does  exactly  the  same 
thing.  He  starts  with  well  known  facts  and  accepted 
general  truths.  These  are  his  axioms.  With  these  he  es- 
tablishes other  truths,  which  he  is  at  liberty  to  make 
the  basis  of  the  next  step  of  his  proof. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  said  that  mere  asser- 
tion is  not  argument.  It  is  a  far  call  from  empty  declara- 
tion to  a  proved  proposition.  Many  times  in  the  course 
of  an  argument,  young  debaters  rehearse  a  series  of 
propositions,  which  they  claim  have  been  established 
by  proof  that  is  conclusive;  yet  how  often  these  boasted 
conclusions  are  but  the  hollowest  asumption!  The  warn- 
ing that  the  debater  should  hear  above  the  sound  of  his 
own  voice  and  the  applause  of  friends  is  the  small  voice 
of  the  doubter  in  the  audience,  forever  challenging  him 
with  these  words:  "  Prove  it.   Show  me.'*  The  business 


274  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

of  any  man  presenting  an  argument  is  convincing  proof, 
not  empty  assertion. 

Nothing  is  more  helpful  in  the  construction  of  an 
argument  than  the  conscious  thought  of  a  critical  per- 
son or  audience  listening  to  the  presentation  of  your 
proofs.  There  can  be  no  use  in  an  argument  directed  only 
to  the  friends  of  a  proposition.  Burke  did  not  address 
his  argument  for  conciliation  with  the  American  colo- 
nies to  Pitt.  It  would  have  been  useless;  for  Pitt  was 
himself  an  advocate  of  the  rights  of  colonial  subjects. 
Burke  must  reach  those  members  of  Parliament  who 
were  either  indifferent  to  the  whole  matter,  or  else  were 
opposed  to  conciliation.  The  man  in  the  pulpit  does  not 
need  to  prove  to  the  membership  of  his  church  that  the 
saloon  is  an  institution  fraught  with  terrible  dangers  to 
youth.  His  church  already  believes  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  preacher  would  need  all  his  powers  of  argu- 
ment to  prove  this  same  proposition  to  a  slum  crowd 
on  a  Saturday  night.  Preparing  to  speak  to  such  an  au- 
dience, he  would  leave  no  weak  places  in  his  argument. 
So,  for  every  man  who  strives  to  convince — it  is  well  for 
him  to  keep  in  mind  some  critical  person  or  some  hos- 
tile audience  ready  to  tear  his  argument  to  pieces.  This 
puts  him  to  the  test;  then  he  will  make  no  assertion 
that  is  not  backed  by  ample  proof. 

EXERCISE 

Prove  to  a  twelve-year-old  child  one  of  the  follow- 
ing assertions:  — 

1.  The  earth  is  round. 

2.  The  sun  does  not  go  round  the  earth. 
S.  Lightning  is  a  form  of  electricity. 

4.  The  earth's  axis  is  inclined. 

5.  Mars  has  an  atmosphere. 


THE  PROPOSITION  275 

6.  Water  on  the  surface  of  a  glass  containing  ice-water  did 
not  come  through  the  glass. 

THE  PROPOSITION 

Its  limitations.  Before  one  can  write  an  argument,  one 
must  have  in  mind  a  definite  proposition  to  be  proved, 
A  person  might  write  an  explanation  of  what  a  State 
Fair  is;  but  he  could  write  no  argument  on  "  A  State 
Fair."  However,  he  might  write  a  strong  argument  on 
the  proposition,  "  All  State  Fairs  should  be  free  to  the 
public  ";  or,  "  State  Fairs  should  be  generously  sup- 
ported by  the  State.'*  He  might  explain  to  a  stranger 
newly  arrived  from  Mars  what  is  meant  by  the  comic 
supplement  to  our  great  dailies;  and  he  might  argue  on 
this  question:  "  The  comic  supplement  of  the  great 
dailies  is  working  an  injury  to  the  character  of  our 
youth."  So,  too,  he  might  write  an  essay  on  the  topic, 
"  Industry  is  a  source  of  wealth  ";  but  for  argument  he 
must  have  some  such  proposition  as  this:  "  The  happiest 
man  is  one  who  earns  his  own  way."  If  there  is  to  be 
an  argument,  there  must  be  a  definite  proposition,  in- 
volving the  possibility  of  rational  contradiction,  about 
which  to  argue. 

Yet  not  all  propositions  lend  themselves  to  argument. 
Such  a  question  as,  "^  Resolved,  That  a  man  who  steals 
should  be  punished  ";  or  "  Resolved,  That  a  boy  who 
has  failed  in  two  thirds  of  his  work  shall  not  be  graduated 
from  this  school,"  is  not  good  for  argument.  The  truth 
is  obvious;  it  is  granted  by  all.  Obvious,  too,  is  a  pro- 
position like  this:  *'  A  State  should  support  elementary 
schools."  Entirely  as  unfortunate  as  propositions  that 
are  obvious  are  those  propositions  that  cannot  be 
proved.  Such  a  proposition  is  this:  '*  Cadmus  invented 
the  alphabet."     To  this  class  belong  many  tenets  of 


276  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

religious  belief.  Then  we  may  add  for  a  third  qualifica- 
tion for  argument:  The  topic  should  be  within  the  range 
of  the  thought  and  interest  of  the  debater.  It  is  absurd 
for  high  school  students  to  attempt  to  debate  the  Tariff 
Question,  or  Darwin's  Theory  of  Evolution.  Such  ques- 
tions are  too  large  and  require  more  information  and 
experience  than  young  persons  can  be  expected  to  have; 
and,  furthermore,  such  questions  have  no  interest  for 
young  people,  for  they  do  not  touch  their  lives  at  any 
point.  A  question  for  argument,  then,  should  not  he  ob- 
vious; it  should  be  susceptible  of  proof;  it  should  not  be 
beyond  the  debater's  comprehension;  and  it  should  be 
interesting  to  him, 

EXERCISE 

1.  Give  all  the  reasons  that  Jeanie  used  to  convince 
her  mother  that  she  should  be  allowed  to  go  to  a  class 
party.  Arrange  them  in  order  of  climax. 

2.  Give  five  reasons  that  John  urged  in  asking  his 
father  to  buy  him  a  pony. 

3.  Give  as  many  reasons  as  you  can  for  changing  the 
school  holiday  from  Saturday  to  Monday;  or  from  Mon- 
day to  Saturday. 

The  statement  of  the  proposition.  Having  deter- 
mined the  kind  of  subject  suitable  for  argument,  the 
next  matter  for  consideration  is  the  manner  of  stating  the 
proposition.  The  statement  of  a  proposition  for  argu- 
ment should  include  exactly  what  the  writer  or  speaker 
intends  to  prove  —  not  more,  not  less.  If  one  should 
use  this  theme:  "  All  sale  of  alcohol  should  be  prohibited 
in  this  State,"  more  has  been  included  than  one  would 
wish  to  prove;  for  few  would  desire  to  prohibit  the  sale 
of  alcohol  to  be  used  in  laboratories  or  for  fuel  to  gene- 


THE  PROPOSITION  277 

rate  power.  Where  the  fight  was  intended  to  center,  was 
upon  the  more  Umited  proposition,  "  The  sale  for  drink- 
ing purposes  of  all  liquors  containing  alcohol  shall  be 
prohibited  in  this  State."  A  man  who  believed  in  the 
entire  uselessness  of  alcohol  taken  internally  might 
argue  a  proposition  so  limited  as  to  read  "  for  drink- 
ing or  medical  purposes."  With  such  a  question  there 
could  be  no  failure  of  a  difference  of  opinion,  and  a 
consequent  necessity  of  solid  argument  to  establish 
the  truth  of  the  proposition.  Be  accurate  in  the  state- 
ment of  the  proposition. 

Next,  a  proposition  should  be  stated  so  that  there  are 
two  sides  to  the  question.  A  question  like  this:  "  The 
illicit  sale  of  alcohol  should  be  prohibited  by  the  State," 
offers  no  chance  for  argument;  for  "  illicit  "  means  con- 
trary to  law,  and  everything  contrary  to  law  is  by  that 
very  fact  prohibited.  So,  in  such  a  question  as,  "  The 
vicious  methods  of  some  corporations  (or  some  labor 
unions)  are  blameworthy,"  or,  *'  The  desire  to  gain  an 
unfair  advantage  in  debate  is  reprehensible,"  the  words 
**  vicious  "  and  "  unfair  "  beg  the  question.  With 
statements  such  as  these  there  can  be  no  chance  for 
argument. 

Third,  the  words  used  in  stating  a  proposition  must 
not  be  ambiguous.  They  must  have  the  same  meaning 
for  all.  Nothing  is  more  displeasing  to  an  audience  than 
to  be  compelled  to  listen  to  a  discussion  in  which  two 
interpretations  have  been  given  to  the  terms  in  the 
question,  and  the  opponents  do  not  grapple  in  the  con- 
test. In  framing  a  question  for  debate,  both  parties 
should  labor  honestly  for  a  statement  that  will  compel 
a  square  fight.  Any  trickery  or  deception,  or  any  eva- 
sion of  the  real  question  by  hiding  behind  ambiguous 
terms,  always  loses  the  respect  of  an  audience.    Such 


278  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

methods  receive  the  same  condemnation  that  comes 
to  the  unsportsmanhke  fellow  who  is  determined  to  win 
a  game,  even  if  it  be  by  tricky  playing.  Avoid  ambigu- 
ity; try  to  be  fair. 

Fourth,  a  proposition  should  be  stated  in  the  fewest 
possible  words.  To  be  sure,  a  question  must  be  accu- 
rately stated,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  misimderstand- 
ing;  and  this  sometimes  requires  qualifying  phrases  and 
clauses.  Still,  as  far  as  is  consistent  with  accuracy  and 
clearness,  everything  not  needed  should  be  eliminated. 
An  audience  wants  the  gist  of  a  proposition  in  a  few 
words.  "  If*s  "  and  "  provided*s  "  are  an  annoyance. 
Be  brief. 

EXERCISE! 

1.  Submit  ten  questions  for  discussion  that  are  easily 
comprehended,  interesting,  not  obvious,  and  are  sus- 
ceptible of  proof.  The  questions  will  provoke  greater 
discussion  if  they  have  a  local  interest. 

2.  Formulate  five  of  these  so  that  they  will  include 
just  what  you  wish  to  say,  will  not  beg  the  question, 
will  not  be  ambiguous,  and  will  be  in  the  fewest  words 
possible.  They  should  be  so  fairly  stated  that  you  would 
be  willing  to  discuss  either  side  of  the  question. 

THE  BRIEF 

The  next  step  in  writing  an  argument  is  to  construct 
a  brief.  In  the  chapter  on  Exposition  there  was  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  difference  between  an  outline  and  a  brief; 
in  argumentation  the  brief  is  the  only  form  of  outline 

»  To  the  instructor :  Keep  a  complete  list  of  the  questions  suggested  by 
the  pupils.  The  subjects  that  have  a  local  interest  are  much  better  than 
the  academic,  political,  or  sociological  questions  very  often  used  for  argu- 
ment. 


THE  BRIEF  279 

used.  A  brief  shows  clearly  what  the  line  of  argument  is 
to  be,  and  sets  out  in  order  all  the  propositions  that  will 
be  used  to  establish  the  main  proposition.  A  brief  is 
a  complete  summary  of  an  argument  compressed  into 
a  few  sentences. 

A  brief  is  divided  into  three  parts:  introduction, 
brief  proper,  and  conclusion.  Each  of  these  divisions 
has  a  special  function  to  perform  in  an  argument. 

/.   THE  INTRODUCTION 

Its  purpose.  The  introduction,  as  its  name  implies, 
is  the  opening  of  an  argument.  Before  proofs  are  sub- 
mitted, it  is  necessary  that  the  reader  should  know  ex- 
actly what  is  to  be  proved.  This  seems  simple;  but 
there  are  a  number  of  things  in  most  questions  that  need 
explanation.  Suppose  that  you  wished  to  urge  a  longer 
school  day,  and  that  your  proposition  should  be  stated, 
**  A  longer  school  day  is  desirable."  It  would  seem 
that  this  proposition  should  be  perfectly  clear.  Yet,  if 
the  reader  of  your  argument  had  always  lived  where 
school  began  at  half  past  eight  in  the  morning  and 
closed  at  four  in  the  afternoon,  his  understanding  of 
the  question  would  be  quite  different  from  that  of  the 
man  whose  children  attended  school  four  hours  a  day. 
Then,  too,  the  word  "  desirable  "  might  be  the  source  of 
misunderstanding  ;  for  what  might  be  held  desirable  by 
the  man  who  believed  that  the  best  education  can  be 
extracted  from  books  would  be  thought  most  undesir- 
able by  the  man  who  believed  that  real  education  is  de- 
rived only  from  vigorous  contact  with  the  living  world. 
In  the  same  way  it  would  be  unavailing  to  argue  that 
"a  small  college  offers  greater  advantanges  to  youth 
than  a  large  college";  for  who  has  determined  the 
number  of  students  necessary  to  entitle  a  college  to  the 


280  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

epithet  "  large  "?  Or,  again,  if  the  discussion  should  be 
upon  a  "property  qualification  for  suffrage,'*  there 
would  arise  the  question  of  what  is  meant  by  a  **  prop- 
erty qualification  "  —  the  possession  of  property  worth 
ten  dollars  or  one  hundred  dollars?  or,  shall  a  rental  for 
a  place  of  business  be  considered  a  **  property  qualifica- 
tion "?  It  is  to  clear  up  any  possible  misunderstanding, 
and  to  place  before  the  reader  a  clear-cut  question  that 
an  introduction  to  an  argument  is  necessary.  What, 
then,  must  be  included  in  the  introduction  so  that  the 
issue  may  be  squarely  before  the.reader? 

Defining  terms.  First,  whenever  necessary  there 
must  be  definitions  of  the  terms  used  in  stating  the  pro- 
position. A  dictionary  at  times  is  suflScient;  but  gener- 
ally a  definition  from  the  dictionary  is  useless.  Take 
the  word  "  longer  "  when  used  of  a  school  day,  "  large  '* 
or  **  small  "  when  used  of  a  college;  what  help  could  one 
derive  from  a  dictionary  regarding  the  meaning  of  these 
words  .^  There  must  be  an  explanation  of  these  simple 
words  before  the  discussion  of  the  question  can  pro- 
ceed. So,  too,  a  person  would  make  no  advance  toward 
an  understanding  of  the  term  *'  property  qualification/' 
"  living  wage,"  or  **  open  shop  "  by  the  use  of  a  dic- 
tionary. The  most  satisfactory  way  to  arrive  at  a  de- 
finition of  such  terms  as  these  is  to  study  the  origin  and 
the  history  of  the  questions  that  have  brought  them  into 
common  use. 

The  following  paragraph  gives  Mr.  Stelzle*s  defini- 
tion of  "  living  wage  "  in  his  "  Letters  from  a  Working- 
man  *':  — 

A  living  wage  doesn't  mean  exactly  the  same  thing  to  any 
two  men.  My  "living  wage"  wouldn't  satisfy  the  Super  nor 
the  old  man,  because  they  have  a  higher  standard  than  I 
have.    For  some  men  to  "live"  means  summer  homes  and 


THE  BRIEF  281 

European  trips,  besides  a  lot*  of  other  stuff  that  some  of  my 
friends  don't  care  a  rap  about.  To  others,  it  means  simply 
bread  and  meat,  rent  and  fuel,  clothes  and  the  barest  necessi- 
ties of  life.  We're  getting  beyond  the  latter  definition  of  the 
term,  because  the  great  mass  of  working  people  are  getting  to 
have  higher  standards.  After  all,  a  "living  wage"  is  largely 
a  matter  of  taste  and  disposition.  It  means  the  securing  of 
that  which  will  satisfy  the  cravings  of  the  soul,  the  mind,  and 
the  body  of  each  individual  man.^ 

Matter  irrelevant,  admitted,  waived.  The  second  use 
of  an  introduction  is  to  get  rid  of  any  matters  that  may 
cloud  the  real  issue.  Many  related  matters  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  main  issue,  though  they  are  connected 
with  the  general  topic.  If  the  proposition  were  that 
High  License  is  a  better  solution  of  the  liquor  problem 
than  Prohibition,  an  advocate  of  Prohibition  might 
easily  be  led  into  a  discussion  of  the  waste  and  desola- 
tion wrought  by  intemperance.  Such  a  discussion  would 
be  quite  beside  the  point,  and  a  defender  of  High  Li- 
cense would  not  be  called  upon  to  defend  intemperance. 
Such  matter  is  called  "irrelevant,*'  meaning  that  it  has 
no  bearing  on  the  question.  When  necessary,  part  of  the 
introduction  should  be  used  in  clearing  away  irrelevant 
matter. 

Besides  matters  that  are  irrelevant  to  the  question, 
there  are  at  times  propositions  that  are  granted  or  ad- 
mitted. If  a  person  were  arguing  against  the  Municipal 
Ownership  of  Public  Utilities  in  a  city  where  the  govern- 
ing charter  did  not  specifically  grant  power  to  own  and 
operate  such  institutions,  he  might  admit  for  the  pur- 
pose of  the  discussion  that  the  city  had  such  right,  in 
order  to  rid  the  question  of  all  side  issues,  and  get  to  the 
real  point  of  the  discussion  —  namely,  the  advantage  or 
disadvantage  of  such  ownership  and  operation.  So,  too, 
in  opposing  the  annexation  of  Cuba,  a  writer  might 

1  Letters  from  a  Workingman,  by  Charles  Stelzle.    Copyright,  1908,  by  Fleming  H.  Rev- 
ell  Company 


282  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

admit  the  contention  of  the  promoters  of  annexation, — 
that  the  Cubans  are  willing  to  be  annexed,  —  though 
this  is  by  no  means  proved.  This  would  bring  the 
reader  to  the  real  point  at  issue:  *'  Is  the  annexation  of 
Cuba  to  the  advantage  of  the  United  States?  "  Yet  one 
further  illustration:  in  a  text-book  containing  briefs 
for  debates,  the  affirmative  argument  on  the  question, 
"  Resolved,  That  intercollegiate  football  promotes  the 
best  interests  of  colleges,'*  is  arranged  under  the  fol- 
lowing heads :  — 

I.  Athletics  in  colleges  is  essential. 
n.  Football  is  a  beneficial  form  of  athletics. 
m.  Intercollegiate  contests  are  advantageous. 
IV.  The  evils  of  football  are  not  inherent. 

A  person  arguing  on  the  negative  of  the  question  would 
certainly  admit  the  first  contention,  probably  the  second, 
and  possibly  even  the  fourth.  The  real  argument  upon 
the  question  as  stated  is  upon  the  third  heading.  One 
should  remember  that  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  deny 
everything  that  an  opponent  may  affirm,  and  that  a 
wise  admission  of  certain  contentions  may  advance  one's 
own  argument. 

Indeed,  if  a  writer  or  speaker  wishes  to  be  fair,  he 
should  admit  as  many  of  the  opponent's  contentions  as 
he  can  without  injury  to  his  own  cause.  It  is  truth  that 
is  sought  in  any  argument,  and  no  avoidance  of  the  real 
question  through  pettifogging  and  trifling  can  ever  be 
a  wise  policy.  If  the  cause  is  bad,  nothing  will  go  further 
toward  convincing  an  audience  than  the  appearance  of 
fairness;  and  even  though  the  case  is  good,  it  may  be 
lost  before  an  audience  that  believes  its  defender  un- 
fair. 

The  discussion  of  certain  definite  matters  is  sometimes 
waived,  or  omitted.    In  a  debate  this  is  often  done  by 


THE  BRIEF  283 

agreement.  For  example,  it  might  be  well  to  waive 
any  discussion  of  the  revenue  to  be  derived  from  li- 
censes in  an  argument  concerning  High  License  or  Pro- 
hibition as  a  means  of  control  of  the  sale  of  liquor.  So 
in  an  argument  concerning  high  school  fraternities,  it 
would  help  toward  the  solution  of  the  question,  if  the 
discussion  of  the  legal  power  of  the  Board  of  Education 
to  deal  with  members  should  be  waived.  It  must  be 
clear  that  in  both  the  examples,  the  waived  considera- 
tions have  to  do  with  the  question.  So  far  as  rele- 
vancy is  concerned,  waived  considerations  do  not  differ 
from  matters  that  are  admitted.  Both  admitted  and 
waived  matters  are  relevant.  But  there  is  this  differ- 
ence between  them  in  an  argument :  admitted  considera- 
tions may  be  used  by  either  side  in  a  discussion;  waived 
matters  may  be  used  by  neither  side. 

EXERCISE  ' 

In  a  paragraph  not  exceeding  two  hundred  words  in 
length,  define  one  of  the  following  terms :  — 
Prohibition  or  High  LicensCy  as  it  is  understood  in  a 

discussion  of  the  control  of  the  liquor  traffic. 
High  School  Fraternity^  as  you  would  have  it  under- 
stood in  the  question:  "  Resolved,  That  High  School 
Fraternities  should  be  prohibited  by  the  school  au- 
thorities." 
Caucus  System  of  Nominations  and  Primary  Nomina- 

tionsy  as  opposed  to  each  other. 
The  Gothenburg  System  of  Dispensing  Liquor. 

The  clash  of  opinion.  Having  determined  the  meaning 
of  a  proposition  by  a  definition  of  the  terms,  and  having 
narrowed  the  question  by  rejecting  from  consideration 
all  irrelevant  and  waived  considerations  and  by  stating 


284  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

the  matters  that  are  admitted,  the  third  step  in  making 
an  introduction  is  a  study  of  the  clash  of  opinion.  By 
a  "  clash  of  opinion  "  is  meant  a  statement  of  the  prin- 
cipal propositions  that  are  held  to  be  true  on  both  sides 
of  the  question.  Were  a  person  preparing  to  write  on 
an  Eight  Hour  Day,  he  would  think  of  the  many  things 
that  might  be  said  in  favor  of  its  adoption,  and  the 
number  of  things  that  could  be  urged  against  it.  Putting 
these  one  over  against  the  other,  he  would  have  a  clash 
of  opinion  on  this  subject.  He  might  arrange  it  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

I.  An  Eight  Hour  Day  would  benefit  the  laborer,  for 

A.  It  would  improve  his  health,  which  is  impaired  by 
the  present  long  day. 

B.  It  would  give  the  laborer  time  for  improvement 
through  reading,  lectures,  and  evening  schools. 

C.  It  would  allow  time  and  strength  for  enjoyment. 

n.  An  Eight  Hour  Day  would  not  be  harmful  to  industry, 
for 
A.  Production  would  not  be  decreased,  for 

1.  There  are  men  enough  to  do  the  world's  work  in 
the  shorter  day. 
in.  An  Eight  Hour  Day  would  benefit  the  nation,  for 

A.  It  would  help  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  unemployed, 
for 

1.  It  would  require  the  employment  of  more  men. 
IV.  The  principle  of  an  Eight  Hour  Day  must  be  adopted  into 
our  laws,  for 

A.  Employers  will  not  adopt  it  except  on  compulsion. 

B.  Legal  enforcement  of  the  principle  is  necessary  to 
secure  uniformity  of  action. 

The  negative  presents  the  following  fundamental  proposi- 
tions :  — 
I.  An  Eight  Hour  Day  would  not  benefit  the  laborer,  for 

A.  Men  can  work  ten  hours  a  day  without  injury. 

B.  The  laboring  man  would  use  the  extra  time  in  spend- 
ing his  wages  recklessly,  and  so  deprive  his  family  of 
necessities. 


THE  BRIEF  285 

n.  An  Eight  Hour  Day  would  injure  industry,  for 
A.  Production  would  be  diminished,  for 

1.  Production  is  in  proportion  to  the  time  used,  for 
a.  Machines  running  at  a  fixed  speed  are  the  means 

of  production. 

2.  Every  great  change  in  methods  of  manufacture 
disturbs  industry  and  decreases  production. 

m.  An  Eight  Hour  Day  would  not  benefit  the  nation,  for 
A.  It  would  not  increase  the  number  of  men  employed, 
for 

1.  A  disturbance  in  industry  always  shuts  down  fac- 
tories. 
rV.  The  principle  of  the  Eight  Hour  Day  should  not  be 
adopted  into  our  laws,  for 

A.  Every  man  should  have  the  right  to  sell  his  labor  as 
he  pleases. 

B.  It  will  be  adopted  without  law  whenever  it  becomes 
an  econonuc  advantage  to  employer  and  employed. 

The  main  issues.  The  clash  of  opinion  brings  a  reader 
or  writer  squarely  up  to  the  main  issues  in  an  argument. 
These  are  the  contentions  that  must  be  established  by 
proofs  in  order  to  establish  the  main  proposition.  In 
the  argument  for  an  Eight  Hour  Day,  the  main  issues 
to  be  proved  true  or  false  are:  — 

I.  Is  an  Eight  Hour  Day  a  benefit  to  the  laborer? 
II.  Will  an  Eight  Hour  Day  injure  industry? 
III.  Will  an  Eight  Hour  Day  benefit  the  nation? 
IV.  Is  it  necessary  to  make  laws  in  order  to  establish  an 
Eight  Hour  Day? 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  clash  of  opinion 
should  not  contain  proofs;  it  merely  sets  forth  the  main 
propositions  of  both  sides  of  the  question.  The  whole 
purpose  of  an  introduction  is  to  place  clearly  and  fairly 
before  the  reader  the  main  issues  of  the  question.  When 
the  main  issues  are  squarely  stated,  then  the  field  is 
clear  for  the  battle  of  proofs.    Indeed,  the  whole  of  a 


286  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

debate  is  much  like  those  ancient  tournaments.  The 
statement  of  the  question  is  the  challenge;  the  defini- 
tion of  the  terms  and  the  narrowing  of  the  question  is 
like  the  announcement  by  the  heralds  of  the  conditions 
of  the  contest;  the  declaration  of  the  main  issues  is  the 
call  to  arms.  But  up  to  this  time  not  one  stroke  should 
be  delivered,  not  one  proof  be  offered. 

Summary.  A  complete  introduction,  then,  contains 
(l)  a  statement  of  the  question;  sometimes  requiring  (2) 
a  definition  of  the  terms  used  in  the  question;  which 
is  found  (a)  by  a  study  of  a  dictionary,  or  more  fre- 
quently (6)  by  a  study  of  the  origin  and  history  of  the 
question;  (3)  a  statement  of  matters  that  are  irrele- 
vant, admitted,  or  waived ;  (4)  a  statement  of  the  con- 
tentions of  both  sides  of  the  question,  called  the  clash 
of  opinion;  from  which  are  drawn  (5)  the  main  issues 
involved. 

It  is  not  essential  that  every  introduction  contain 
all  these  divisions,  for  there  are  times  when  some  of 
them  are  so  well  known  that  they  need  no  statement. 
In  these  days  there  would  be  no  need  of  a  definition 
of  intercollegiate  football.  So  it  is  with  most  topics  of 
the  day;  the  really  essential  thing  is  a  clear  statement 
of  the  main  issues.  In  one  of  the  recent  magazines 
there  appeared  a  defense  of  football.  In  the  first  para- 
graph was  given  the  occasion  for  writing  on  the  subject, 
and  in  the  second  a  statement  of  the  main  issues. 

I  hope  to  prove  that  with  all  its  faults  it  is  one  of  the  best 
forms  of  athletic  sports  that  can  be  invented;  that  by  no  other 
game  or  exercise  practiced  by  young  men  are  the  players 
themselves  so  much  benefited  as  by  football;  that  the  col- 
lege ought  to  be  as  much  interested  in  keeping  it  up  as  are 
the  enthusiastic  football  players  themselves;  that  the  public, 
who  have  boys  to  educate,  ought  to  acquaint  themselves  with 


THE  BRIEF  287 

the  subject.  Watching  the  games  when  possible,  they  ought 
not  to  allow  themselves  to  be  beguiled  into  condemnation  of 
the  sport  by  sensational  writers,  who  inveigh  against  it,  either 
because  they  know  nothing  of  it,  or  because  they  have  deter- 
mined to  know  nothing  of  it,  since  it  does  not  square  with 
their  "historic  and  traditional  idea"  of  things  suitable  to  a 
college.  Lastly,  I  wish  to  suggest  lines  along  which  measures 
for  the  improvement  of  the  game  should  be  taken,  and  also 
to  advocate  some  measures  for  the  better  supervision  of  the 
sport.  —  E.  L.  Richards. 

On  the  other  hand,  Burke,  in  the  Conciliation,  did  not 
reach  a  statement  of  the  main  issues  until  the  four- 
teenth paragraph.   Then  it  is  very  brief:  — 

The  capital  leading  questions  on  which  you  must  this  day 
decide  are  two:  First,  whether  you  ought  to  concede;  and 
secondly,  what  your  concession  ought  to  be. 

It  v^ould  be  difficult  to  find  a  clearer  statement  of  the 
issues  involved  in  a  question  than  is  exhibited  in  the 
following  letter  by  Lincoln:  — 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington, 
February  3,  1862. 
Major-General  McClellan: 

My  dear  Sir  :  You  and  I  have  distinct  and  different  plans 
for  a  movement  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  —  yours  to 
be  down  the  Chesapeake,  up  the  Rappahannock  to  Urbana, 
and  across  land  to  the  terminus  of  the  railroad  on  the  York 
River;  mine  to  be  directly  to  a  point  on  the  railroad  south- 
west of  Manassas. 

If  you  will  give  me  satisfactory  answers  to  the  following 
questions,  I  shall  gladly  yield  my  plan  to  yours. 
First:  Does  not  your  plan  involve  a  greatly  larger  expenditure 

of  time  and  money  than  mine? 
Second:  WTierein  is  a  victory  more  certain  by  your  plan  than 

mine? 
Third:  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  valuable  by  your  plan  than 

by  mine? 
Fourth:  In  fact,  would  it  not  be  less  valuable  in  this,  that  it 


288  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

would  break  no  great  line  of  the  enemy's  communications, 
while  mine  would? 
Fifth:  In  case  of  disaster,  would  not  a  retreat  be  more  difficult 
by  your  plan  than  by  mine?  i 

Yours  truly, 

Abraham  Lincoln. 

EXERCISE 

Make  a  brief  for  the  introduction  to  one  of  the  follow- 
ing questions.  Include  as  many  of  the  five  divisions  of 
an  introduction  as  you  would  need  to  make  clear  to  an 
audience  of  grammar-grade  pupils  every  point  in  the 
argument  you  will  later  present.  Remember  that  the 
introduction  should  be  the  same,  no  matter  which  side 
of  the  question  you  intend  to  take. 

1.  Resolved,  That  boys  should  not  play  marbles  "for  keeps." 

2.  Resolved,  That  a  simple  uniform  dress  should  be  adopted 
by  girls  for  high  school  graduation. 

3.  Resolved,  That  the  presentation  of  a  standard  play  by 
pupils  is  for  the  general  good  of  a  high  school. 

4.  Resolved,  That  admission  to  college  should  be  gained  only 
upon  examination. 

5.  Resolved,  That  at  present  wages  a  young  woman  would  do 
better  to  enter  domestic  service  than  to  become  a  clerk 
in  a  store. 

6.  Resolved,  That  the  honor  system  should  be  adopted  in 
giving  examinations  in  high  schools. 

7.  Resolved,  That  a  "safe  and  sane"  Fourth  of  July  is  a  more 
fruitful  source  of  patriotism  than  the  noisy  demonstra- 
tions of  past  years. 

[At  this  point  it  would  be  well  for  the  class  to  divide  into 
groups  of  three  each.  The  groups  should  choose  opposite  sides 
of  these  questions,  and  the  members  within  each  should  work 
together  as  if  for  a  debate.  They  should  keep  the  same  question 
through  the  following  exercises,  and  construct  a  complete  ar- 
gument, both  the  brief  and  the  finished  composition.  If  the 
members  of  any  group  do  not  find  here  something  that  they 


THE  BRIEF  289 

wish  to  discuss,  let  them  select  a  subject  for  themselves,  either 
from  the  list  at  the  end  of  the  chapter,  or,  better  still,  from  the 
many  things  in  which  they  are  interested.] 

//.     THE  BRIEF  PROPER 

When  the  introduction  is  complete  and  the  main  is- 
sues are  clearly  drawn,  the  next  thing  is  to  prove  one 
side  of  the  contention.  This  is  not  done  in  a  haphazard 
way,  but  requires  well-ordered  reasoning.  To  show  the 
order  of  reasoning  is  the  function  of  the  brief  proper.  It 
is  a  clear  outline  of  the  methods  that  will  be  employed 
and  the  evidence  that  will  be  offered  in  proof  of  the  pro- 
position. 

Direct  proof.  A  brief  must  be  so  complete  and  so 
lucid  that  it  will  indicate  every  step  in  the  argument. 
To  be  complete  it  must  not  be  a  series  of  words  or  phrases, 
such  as  are  at  times  found  in  outlines;  it  must  be  a  series 
of  complete  sentences,  stating  every  link  in  the  chain  of 
proof.  To  be  lucid,  the  arrangement  must  be  logical. 
Not  only  will  it  set  out  all  the  proofs,  whether  used  to 
establish  the  main  proposition  or  one  of  the  subordinate 
propositions,  but  it  will  set  out  each  so  that  its  relation 
to  the  thing  it  is  intended  to  prove  shall  be  unmistakable. 

In  order  that  the  relation  of  the  parts  of  a  brief  may 
be  unmistakable,  an  arbitrary  system  of  symbols  has 
been  adopted.  The  general  proposition  that  a  writer  sets 
out  to  prove  has  no  symbol.  The  propositions  supporting 
the  general  proposition  are  indicated  by  Roman  numer- 
als (I,  II,  III,  etc.).  These  again  are  established  by  other 
propositions,  whose  symbols  are  capital  letters,  (A,  B, 
C,  etc.).  Under  each  of  these  are  ranged  their  subordi- 
nate and  supporting  proofs,  marked  by  Arabic  numerals, 
(1,  2,  3,  etc.).  Then  the  proofs  of  these  are  indicated  by 
small  letters  (a,  b,  c,  etc.).  This  is  as  far  as  the  work  of 


280 


FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 


the  high  school  is  Hkely  to  take  a  writer,  but  briefs  for 
college  debates  often  go  two  or  three  steps  further. 
This  ordination  of  a  brief  can  be  most  clearly  seen  in 
the  following  scheme:  — 

The  General  Proposition  supported  by 

I.  supported  by 

A.  supported  by 

1.  supported  by 
a. 
h. 
c. 
«. 


B. 


n. 


Or,  to  show  the  same  by  a  diflFerent  arrangement,  — 


A.  by 


The  Main 
Proposition 


I.  supported  by 


B.  by 


II.  in  the  same  way. 

If  now  the  page  be.  turned  so  that  the  small  letters 
are  at  the  bottom,  a  good  idea  may  be  gained  of  the  way 
in  which  an  argument  is  built  up  from  the  foundation. 
The  footing-stones  are  the  final  proofs;  they  are  hard 


THE  BRIEF  291 

facts.  Upon  these  are  supported  subordinate  proposi- 
tions, which  again  support  other  propositions,  which 
support  the  main  proposition.  The  foundation  is  broad ; 
it  is  composed  of  undisputed  evidence  and  sohd  author- 
ity. On  this  foundation  is  raised  piece  by  piece  the  argu- 
ment that  supports  in  security  the  main  proposition. 

The  following  is  a  brief  showing  the  larger  sub-divi- 
sions of  the  first  part  of  Burke's  argument  for  Concilia- 
tion. In  answer  to  the  first  of  the  main  issues,  "  whether 
you  ought  to  concede,"  he  says,  — 

"England  ought  to  concede,"  for 

I.  The  nature  and  circumstances  of  the  object  (the  colonies) 
demand  concession,  for 

A.  The  population  is  already  so  great,  and  growing  so 
fast  that  no  narrow  system  will  be  suitable  to  such 
an  object. 

B.  Their  commerce  is  a  very  important  consideration,  for 

1.  Mr.  Glover  has  eloquently  shown  this. 

2.  The  Government's  reports  show  this,  for 

a.  According  to  them  trade  in  America  increased 
twelve-fold  from  1704  to  1772. 

b.  The  trade  with  America  now  is  about  equal  to 
all  England's  trade  a  century  ago. 

c.  Pennsylvania    increased    her    trade    fifty-fold 
from  1704  to  1772. 

C.  Their  agriculture  is  so  successfully  carried  on  that 
the  New  World  now  feeds  the  Old. 

D.  Their  fisheries  have  reached  to  the  ends  of  the  world. 

n.  The  way  to  obtain  this  valuable  object  is  not  by  force,  for 

A.  Force  is  but  temporary. 

B.  Force  is  uncertain. 

C.  Force  impairs  its  object  by  its  own  endeavors. 

D.  Force  is  not  justified  by  experience. 

m.  The  temper  and  character  of  the  American  people  demand 
concession,  for 

A.  A  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  has  grown  up  from  a  variety 
of  powerful  causes,  for 


292  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

1.  The  people  of  the  Colonies  are  descendants  of 
Englishmen. 

2.  Their  governments  are  popular  in  a  high  degree. 

3.  They  are  Protestants  in  religion. 

4.  Slavery  in  the  South  has  made  the  spirit  of  liberty 
high  and  haughty. 

5.  Education  contributes  to  the  growth  of  this  un- 
tractable  spirit. 

6.  Distance  increases  this  spirit  of  liberty. 

rV.  The  question  then  becomes:  What  shall  we  do  with  this 
spirit? 

Note  in  this  abridged  brief  that  every  proposition  is 
followed  by  its  proof  —  never  the  reverse.  Note,  too, 
that  the  word  used  to  indicate  the  relation  between 
proposition  and  proof  is  always  for.  All  briefs  should 
be  made  in  this  order,  because  this  arrangement  is  clear; 
and,  with  an  order  that  is  fixed,  the  reader  can  never  be 
at  a  loss  to  know  what  the  writer  is  driving  at.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  the  proof  at  times  came  first,  a  reader  would 
be  wholly  in  the  dark  as  to  what  the  object  of  the  proof 
was  until  the  conclusion  was  announced  by  some  word 
like  "  hence  "  or  "  therefore  '*;  and  then  it  would  be 
necessary  to  review  what  had  been  said  to  establish  the 
conclusion.  In  reading  a  written  argument  a  man  could 
turn  back  and  do  this;  but  in  hearing  a  spoken  argument, 
and  in  debate,  the  most  common  form  of  argument, 
such  a  course  would  be  impossible.  In  making  a  brief, 
always  follow  the  order  of  " proposition,  then  proof"; 
and  always  use  the  connective  for, 

EXERCISE 

1.  Richard  A.  Proctor  supports  by  the  following 
argument  the  theory  that  the  moon  cannot  be  regarded 
as  at  present  the  abode  of  any  forms  of  life,  such  as 
we  are  familiar  with  on  earth:  — 


THE  BRIEF  293 

In  the  first  place,  the  moon  has  no  appreciable  atmosphere. 
We  have  long  known  this  quite  certainly,  because  we  see  that 
when  stars  are  occulted  by  the  moon  they  disappear  instantly, 
whereas  we  know  this  would  not  be  the  case  had  the  moon 
an  atmosphere  of  appreciable  extent.  But  if  any  doubt  could 
have  remained,  the  evidence  of  the  spectroscope  in  Mr.  Hug- 
gins's  hands  would  have  sufficed  to  remove  it.  He  has  never 
been  able  to  detect  a  sign  of  the  existence  of  any  lunar  at- 
mosphere, though  Mars  and  Jupiter,  so  much  farther  from  us, 
have  afforded  distinct  evidence  respecting  the  atmospheres 
which  surround  them. 

Then  secondly,  there  are  no  seas  or  oceans  on  the  moon. 
Were  there  any  large  tracts  of  water,  the  tremendous  heat  to 
which  the  moon  is  subjected  during  the  course  of  the  long 
lunar  day  (lasting  a  fortnight  of  our  time)  would  certainly 
cause  enormous  quantities  of  water  to  evaporate;  and  not 
only  would  the  effects  of  this  process  be  distinctly  recogniz- 
able in  the  telescope,  but  the  spectroscope  would  exhibit  in 
an  unmistakable  manner  the  presence  of  the  aqueous  vapor 
thus  formed. 

Thirdly,  there  are  no  lunar  seasons.  The  inclination  of  the 
moon's  axis  to  the  orbit  in  which  she  travels  around  the  sun 
is  nearly  89  degrees,  and  with  this  inclination  there  can  be 
no  appreciable  seasonal  changes. 

Fourthly,  the  enormous  length  of  the  lunar  day  is  altogether 
opposed  to  our  conceptions  of  what  is  suitable  for  animal  or 
vegetable  life.  The  lunar  day  lasts  about  a  fortnight,  and  the 
lunar  night  is,  of  course,  equally  long.  Were  this  all,  the  in- 
convenience of  the  arrangement  would  not  be  endurable  by 
beings  like  ourselves.  But  far  more  serious  consequences 
must  result  from  the  combination  of  the  arrangement  with 
the  want  of  an  atmosphere;  for  whereas  during  the  lunar  day 
the  surface  of  the  moon  is  exposed  to  an  inconceivably  intense 
direct  heat,  undoubtedly  sufficient  to  heat  that  surface  far 
above  the  boiling  point,  during  the  lunar  night  the  heat  is  radi- 
ated rapidly  away  into  space  (no  atmosphere  checking  the 
process),  and  an  intensity  of  cold  must  prevail  of  which  we  can 
form  but  imperfect  conceptions. 

Make  a  brief  showing  the  four  chief  divisions  of  this 
argument,  and  all  the  subdivisions  supporting  each. 


294  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

2.  Using  the  subject  that  you  selected  in  the  last 
exercise  (page  288)  for  your  completed  argument,  make 
a  brief  that  shall  cover  every  detail  of  the  proof  you 
intend  to  offer. 

Refutation.  So  far  we  have  dealt  with  direct  proof 
only.  But  it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  there 
are  two  sides  to  any  question  worth  a  discussion.  There 
are  always  things  to  be  said  on  the  other  side  of  the 
question,  and  a  decision  is  reached  by  weighing  the 
arguments  offered  on  both  sides.  In  order  to  prove  one's 
own  case,  it  is  necessary  to  disprove  much  of  an  oppo- 
nent's argument.  This  part  of  argumentation  is  called 
refutation. 

It  must  be  clear  that  refutation  demands  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  question.  This  thorough  knowledge 
has  already  been  found  necessary  in  making  the  analysis 
of  the  question  in  the  introduction.  It  is  not  possible 
to  know  too  much  of  the  opposing  arguments;  for  only 
with  the  fullest  command  of  all  the  material  can  a 
speaker  or  writer  be  armed  to  meet  all  the  possible  at- 
tacks of  an  adversary.  Read  anything  on  the  subject 
that  you  can  find;  talk  with  afiy  one  who  knows;  above 
all,  think  —  think  of  all  the  lines  of  attack  possible, 
and  study  out  ways  to  meet  them.  Keen  thinking  and 
thorough  knowledge  are  essential  in  refutation. 

It  is  not  necessary  or  wise  to  attempt  to  refute  every- 
thing that  can  be  said  on  the  other  side.  In  every  argu- 
ment there  are  matters  of  but  slight  importance,  and 
there  are  very  important  points  upon  which  the  whole 
question  turns.  He  is  skillful  in  debate  who  sees  this 
essential  point  in  another's  argument  and  makes  a  tell- 
ing attack  at  that  point.  To  take  up  many  trifles  is 
always  annoying  to  an  audience;  and  to  avoid  the  main 
points  of  the  other  side  gives  the  impression  that  the 


THE  BRIEF  295 

opposing  position  is  impregnable.  Do  not  dignify  trifles 
with  any  attention.  Waste  no  ammunition  on  outposts; 
center  the  attack  upon  some  strategic  point. 

It  is  difficult  to  give  rules  for  the  position  of  refuta- 
tion in  an  argument.  Refutation  may  be  divided  into 
refutation  of  special  points  of  proof  and  refutation  of 
major  contentions.  Refutation  of  special  points  should 
be  taken  up  wherever  one*s  own  argument  touches  those 
points.  Such  refutation  should  never  be  reserved  to 
the  end;  for  it  is  more  easily  understood  if  considered 
in  its  relation  to  the  direct  proof,  and  this  arrangement 
saves  the  end  of  an  argument  from  being  scrappy 
and  disjointed. 

A  general  refutation  of  some  major  proposition  should 
be  considered  in  the  body  of  an  argument  whenever  it  can 
be  introduced  successfully  in  connection  with  direct 
proof.  Often  such  refutation  cannot  be  incidental  to 
the  direct  proof,  but  is  so  important  that  it  must  of 
itself  form  a  division  of  the  whole  argument.  In  this 
case  the  refutation  stands  either  at  the  beginning  or 
at  the  end.  If  the  audience  is  prejudiced  against  the 
position  you  hold,  it  is  necessary  to  overcome  this  pre- 
judice before  any  advance  can  be  made  in  establishing 
your  own  contention.  The  refutation  then  stands  at 
the  beginning.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  audience  is 
favorable  or  without  any  hostile  feeling,  then  the  usual 
place  for  the  refutation  is  at  the  end  of  the  argument. 

Still  the  old  principle  that  what  is  said  last  leaves  the 
greatest  impression  should  warn  a  writer  of  the  dan- 
ger to  be  encountered  in  giving  the  opposing  arguments 
this  position  of  great  emphasis.  If  the  refutation  must 
stand  at  the  end,  it  must  scatter  the  opposition,  and  it 
must  be  followed  by  a  re-statement  of  the  direct  argu- 
ment so  powerful  and  so  convincing  that  the  opponent's 


296  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

contentions  are  crushed  by  the  host  of  marshalled 
proofs. 

It  is  of  as  much  importance  that  the  point  to  be  re- 
futed shall  be  clearly  stated  as  that  the  refutation  itself 
shall  be  complete.  Otherwise  what  was  meant  to  be 
refutation  may  seem  to  be  direct  proof.  To  avoid  this 
kind  of  confusion,  some  introductory  word  should  be 
used  to  indicate  where  the  refutation  is  to  begin.  Burke 
says :  — 

Here,  then,  I  should  close;  but  I  plainly  perceive  some 
objections  remain,  which  I  ought,  if  possible,  to  remove.  The 
first  will  be  that,  in  resorting  to  the  doctrine  of  our  ancestors, 
as  contained  in  the  preamble  to  the  Chester  Act,  I  prove  too 
much.   To  this  objection  I  answer,  .  .  . 

Chatham  in  his  speech  on  The  Rewmol  of  the  Troops 
from  Boston  says,  — 

But  his  Majesty  is  advised  that  the  union  in  America  can- 
not last.  Ministers  have  more  eyes  than  I,  and  should  have 
more  ears;  but  with  all  the  information  I  have  been  able  to 
procure,  I  can  pronounce  it  a  union  solid,  permanent,  and 
effectual. 

And  then  he  gives  his  reasons  for  believing  the  state- 
ment of  the  Ministry  wrong  and  his  own  contention 
true.   So  Henry,  in  an  Appeal  to  Arms,  says,  — 

They  tell  us,  sir,  that  we  are  weak,  unable  to  cope  with  so 
formidable  an  adversary.  But  when  shall  we  be  stronger.''  .  .  . 
Sir,  we  are  not  weak,  if  we  make  the  proper  use  of  those  means 
which  the  God  of  nature  hath  placed  in  our  power.  Three  mil- 
lions of  people,  armed  in  the  holy  cause  of  liberty,  and  in  such 
a  country  as  that  which  we  possess,  are  invincible  by  any  force 
which  our  enemy  can  send  against  us 

In  each  of  these  examples,  the  point  to  be  refuted  is 
made  perfectly  clear  by  the  orator. 


THE  BRIEF  297 

In  a  debate  a  speaker  often  uses  some  such  phrase 
as,  "  My  opponent  has  told  you  that,"  etc.,  "  but  his 
reasoning  is  faulty  at  this  point  " ;  or  "  Although  the 
statement  has  been  frequently  made  that,"  etc.,  "  yet 
such  a  statement  is  not  borne  out  by  the  facts."  Such 
a  method  brings  into  sharp  contrast  the  opposing  con- 
tentions, and  leaves  no  doubt  concerning  what  is  to  be 
refuted,  and  what  is  the  refutation. 

Refutation  should  be  clearly  indicated  in  the  brief. 
In  the  eariy  briefs  of  students,  it  is  well  to  stick  to  one 
single  set  of  words  to  indicate  refutation,  just  as  we 
found  it  wise  always  to  use  jor  to  indicate  a  proof. 
Althoughy  followed  by  the  statement  which  it  is  your 
purpose  to  refute,  and  yet  followed  by  your  refutation, 
are  good  words  to  use;  they  are  clear  and  simple.  The 
last  example  in  the  previous  paragraph  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  this. 

In  the  ordination  of  refutation,  the  following  method 
is  usually  adopted:  The  proposition  or  proof  to  be  refuted 
is  indicated  by  its  appropriate  symbol  in  the  brief,  — 
a,  or  II,  or  B,  —  whatever  it  should  be;  and  the  opposing 
statement  is  indicated  by  the  same  symbol  with  a 
"  prime  "  mark  ( ' )  to  show  the  relation  between  the 
two.  Thus  if  the  symbol  should  be  a  small  letter,  a,  or 
by  or  c,  then  the  refuting  statement  would  be  indicated 
by  a',  b\  or  c'.  So  A  and  A',  I  and  l',  1  and  l'  indicate 
respectively  the  proposition  to  be  refuted  and  the  re- 
futation. 

To  illustrate,  Spencer's  refutation  of  the  argument 
that  girls  would  grow  rude  if  allowed  to  play  as  they 
please  would  be  briefed  as  follows:  — 

a.  Although  some  defender  of  the  proprieties  says  that  unlady- 
like habits  will  be  formed  by  free  play,  yet 
a' .  The  fear  is  groundless,  for 


298  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

1.  Men  do  not  play  leap-frog  in  the  street,  or  marbles  in 
the  drawing-room. 

2.  Women  have  a  finer  regard  for  appearances  than  men. 

The  following  is  the  complete  paragraph:  — 

**  Then  girls  should  be  allowed  to  run  wild  —  to  become  as 
rude  as  boys,  and  grow  up  into  romps  and  hoydens! "  exclaims 
some  defender  of  the  proprieties.  This,  we  presume,  is  the 
ever-present  dread  of  schoolmistresses.  It  appears,  on  in- 
quiry, that  at  "Establishments  for  Young  Ladies"  noisy  play 
like  that  indulged  in  by  boys,  is  a  punishable  offense;  and  it  is 
to  be  inferred  that  this  noisy  play  is  forbidden,  lest  unladylike 
habits  should  be  formed.  The  fear  is  quite  groundless,  how- 
ever. For  if  the  sportive  activity  allowed  to  boys  does  not 
prevent  them  from  growing  up  into  gentlemen,  why  should  a 
like  sportive  activity  allowed  to  girls  prevent  them  from  grow- 
ing up  into  ladies?  Rough  as  may  have  been  their  accustomed 
play-ground  frolics,  youths  who  have  left  school  do  not  indulge 
in  leapfrog  in  the  street,  or  marbles  in  the  drawing-room. 
Abandoning  their  jackets,  they  abandon  at  the  same  time  boy- 
ish games;  and  display  an  anxiety  —  often  a  ludicrous  anx- 
iety —  to  avoid  whatever  is  not  manly.  If  now,  on  arriving 
at  the  due  age,  this  feeling  of  masculine  dignity  puts  so  eflS- 
cient  a  restraint  on  the  romping  sports  of  boyhood,  will  not 
the  feeling  of  feminine  modesty,  gradually  strengthening 
as  maturity  is  approached,  put  an  eflBcient  restraint  on  the 
like  sports  of  girlhood?  and  will  there  not  consequently  arise 
in  them  even  a  stronger  check  to  whatever  is  rough  and  bois- 
terous? How  absurd  is  the  supposition  that  the  womanly 
instincts  would  not  assert  themselves  but  for  the  rigorous 
discipline  of  schoolmistresses! 

This  study  of  refutation  leads  us  to  the  inevitable  con- 
clusion that  when  an  argument  takes  the  form  of  debate, 
definite  speeches  should  not  be  learned.  No  man  can 
forecast  precisely  an  opponent's  line  of  argument;  and 
a  good  debater  is  one  who  kno'ws  the  question  thoroughly 
and  is  resourceful  enough  to  shift  his  own  attack  or 
defense  to  meet  that  of  an  opponent.  He  would  be  a  poor 


THE  BRIEF  299 

football  captain,  indeed,  who  could  foresee  but  one 
plan  of  attack  and  must  use  his  one  defense,  no  matter 
what  the  opposing  team  may  do.  Yet  this  is  exactly 
what  many  young  debaters  do;  they  refute  what  they 
thought  their  opponents  would  say,  and  give  no  heed 
to  what  they  actually  do  say.  Many  good  phrases  and 
sentences,  possibly  whole  paragraphs,  may  be  written 
in  advance  and  kept  in  mind,  though  not  in  the  exact 
words,  to  be  rallying  points  for  attack  or  defense;  and 
several  plans  of  attack  should  be  made  to  provide  for 
every  possible  plan  of  an  opponent.  But  speeches  com- 
mitted to  memory,  which  often  miss  the  entire  argu- 
ment of  the  opposition,  make  but  a  sorry  showing  in  a 
debate.  In  addition  to  knowledge  and  resourcefulness, 
'  then,  a  debater  must  add  this  third  qualification  —  he 
must  be  a  ready  talker. 

EXERCISE 

Each  group  of  debaters  should  now  have  the  briefs  of 
their  opponents.  Study  them  carefully,  and  introduce 
whatever  refutation  you  propose  to  use  at  the  proper 
points  in  your  own  argument.  Now  submit  to  the  in- 
structor the  completed  brief  proper  with  the  refutation 
included. 

///.    THE  CONCLUSION 

The  conclusion  of  an  argument  is  a  short  summary 
of  the  whole  case.  It  generally  contains  an  affirmation  of 
the  proposition.  This  may  be  all,  as  in  Webster's  conclu- 
sion of  his  address  to  the  jury  in  the  case  of  the  murder 
of  Captain  Joseph  White.  The  paragraph  is  as  follows :  — 

Gentlemen,  I  have  gone  through  with  the  evidence  in  this 
case,  and  have  endeavored  to  state  it  plainly  and  fairly  before 


800  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

you.  I  think  there  are  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  it,  the 
accuracy  of  which  you  cannot  doubt.  I  think  you  cannot  doubt 
that  there  was  a  conspiracy  formed  for  the  purpose  of  commit- 
ting this  murder,  and  who  the  conspirators  were;  that  you  can- 
not doubt  that  the  Crowninshields  and  the  Knapps  were  the 
parties  in  the  conspiracy;  that  you  cannot  doubt  that  the 
prisoner  at  the  bar  knew  that  the  murder  was  to  be  done  on 
the  night  of  the  6th  of  April;  that  you  cannot  doubt  that  the 
murderers  of  Captain  White  were  the  suspicious  persons  seen 
in  and  around  Brown  street  on  that  night;  that  you  cannot 
doubt  that  Richard  Crowninshield  was  the  perpetrator  of 
that  crime;  that  you  cannot  doubt  that  the  prisoner  at  the 
bar  was  in  Brown  Street  on  that  night.  If  there,  then  it  must 
be  by  agreement,  to  countenance,  to  aid  the  perpetrator.  And 
if  so,  then  he  is  guilty  as  Principal. 

Frequently  there  is  a  re-statement  of  the  major  pro- 
positions by  which  the  main  contention  was  proved. 
This  is  found  in  the  following  conclusion  by  Spencer:  — 

We  contend,  then,  that  this  over-education  is  vicious  in 
every  way  —  vicious,  as  giving  knowledge  that  will  soon  be 
forgotten;  vicious,  as  producing  a  disgust  for  knowledge; 
vicious,  as  neglecting  that  organization  of  knowledge  which  is 
more  important  than  its  acquisition;  vicious,  as  weakening  or 
destroying  that  energy,  without  which  a  trained  intellect  is 
useless;  vicious,  as  entailing  that  ill-health  for  which  even 
success  would  not  compensate,  and  which  makes  the  future 
doubly  bitter. 

Whenever  a  re-statement  of  the  principal  proofs 
forms  a  part  of  the  conclusion,  the  order  of  arrangement 
may  be  reversed;  that  is,  whereas  in  the  brief  proper  the 
order  is  unalterably  "proposition,  then  proof,"  in  the 
conclusion  the  order  may  be  proofs  first,  followed  by  the 
re-statement  of  the  proposition.  The  connective  indi- 
cating the  relation  then  becomes  "  since."  This  is  a 
very  common  way  of  closing  a  debate,  and  it  is  in 
accord  with   the  principle  of  Mass  in  composition. 


THE  PRESENTATION  801 

placing  at  the  very  end  the  most  important  matter — 
the  end  for  which  the  argument  was  made. 

The  following  exemplifies  this  method  of  conclusion : — 

Since  the  management  of  a  high  school  publication  affords 
excellent  training  in  business  methods;  since  a  school  paper 
gives  an  added  interest  to  school  life,  and  so  increases  school 
spirit;  since  it  increases  the  desire  to  excel  in  composition, 
in  that  all  are  ambitious  to  find  some  of  their  work  in  the  school 
journal;  since  a  school  paper  may  be  a  great  assistance  in  es- 
tablishing honorable  traditions  in  a  school,  therefore  every 
high  school  with  an  enrollment  adequate  to  support  it  should 
publish  a  school  paper. 

Whenever  there  is  a  recapitulation  of  proofs  in  the 
conclusion,  the  phrasing  should  not  be  changed  from 
that  which  was  adopted  in  the  brief  proper.  There  is 
a  loss  in  the  new  words,  while  there  is  a  distinct  gain 
in  a  judicious  repetition  of  good  phrases,  which  echo 
all  through  an  argument  and  ring  out  clear  in  the  con- 
clusion. They  stick;  and  sometimes  they  turn  the  deci- 
sion. Such  phrases  must  be  so  good  that  they  will  bear 
repetition,  and  then  they  should  be  reiterated. 

EXERCISE 

Continuing  with  the  same  subject  that  you  have  used 
in  the  last  two  exercises,  make  a  brief  of  your  conclusion, 
and  then  write  it  out  in  full.  It  will  be  but  one  strong 
paragraph. 

THE  PRESENTATION 

It  was  Menander  who  said  that  he  had  his  play  fin- 
ished, though  he  had  not  written  a  word  of  it,  meaning 
that  the  real  work  had  been  done  when  he  had  completed 
the  plot.  In  argumentation  one  may  say,  with  a  higher 
regard  for  truth,  that  his  argument  is  finished,  though 


802  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

he  has  not  written  a  word  of  it,  if  only  the  brief  is  com- 
pleted. In  debate  this  is  entirely  true,  for  one  ought 
not  to  write  and  commit  speeches.  In  a  written  argu- 
ment, it  is  nearly  true;  for  the  phrasing  requires  very 
little  effort  compared  with  the  hard  thinking  necessary 
in  constructing  a  brief.  Only  a  few  words  remain  to 
be  said  concerning  the  method  of  presentation  of  the 
argument. 

A  brief  is  to  an  argument  what  a  skeleton  is  to  a  body. 
One  can  see  the  form  an  argument  will  take  from  the 
brief,  just  as  the  student  of  zoology  sees  the  form  of 
an  animal  in  the  skeleton.  However  interesting  skele- 
tons may  be  to  anatomists,  they  are  not  fascinating  to 
other  persons;  nor  is  a  brief  a  charming  form  of  compo- 
sition to  any  but  debaters.  Yet  clothe  the  skeleton  with 
flesh,  and  so  transform  its  ugliness  into  lines  of  beauty, 
and  it  becomes  attractive  even  to  those  ignorant  of 
biology.  So  a  brief  may  be  transformed  from  an  unin- 
teresting series  of  items  to  a  graceful  plea  for  some 
worthy  object.  How  great  the  transformation  is  may 
be  appreciated  by  a  study  of  a  brief  and  a  finished  ora- 
tion by  Burke  or  Webster  or  Curtis. 

It  should  be  one  object  of  a  Writer  to  present  an 
attractive  composition,  to  hide  his  outline  from  sight. 
To  be  sure,  the  keen  student  of  debate  will  see  the  outline 
beneath  the  powerful  plea,  but  others  should  not  be 
able  to  detect  it.  And  the  student  of  debate  admires 
the  composition  the  more  when  a  perfectly  articulated 
brief  can  be  felt  beneath  the  graceful  phrases,  giving 
form  and  strength  to  the  argument.  However,  an  ar- 
gument should  not  be  lean;  there  should  be  enough  of 
amplification  to  cover  the  outline.  Nor  yet  should  an 
argument  be  wordy;  for  in  no  form  of  composition  is 
verbosity  so  much  out  of  place.    Again,  in  the  finished 


PRINCIPLES  OF  STRUCTURE  303 

argument  it  is  not  always  necessary  to  have  the  order 
**  proposition,  then  proof,"  though  that  is  the  invariable 
form  of  the  brief.  Whatever  form  or  order  of  presenta- 
tion is  clearest,  most  pleasing,  and  most  forceful  should 
be  adopted. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  STRUCTURE 

In  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  on  Argumentation, 
attention  was  called  to  the  likeness  between  exposi- 
tion and  argumentation.  So  much  alike  are  they  that 
there  is  no  need  here  to  do  more  than  briefly  rehearse 
the  principles  which  we  found  governing  that  form  of 
discourse. 

Unity.  The  unity  of  an  argument  is  guaranteed  if  the 
writer  follows  the  plain  road  laid  out  for  him  in  the 
brief.  There  should  be  no  excursions  from  this  line 
of  advance,  just  because  some  by-path  looks  attract- 
ive. Digression  in  an  argument  is  unpardonable.  Stick 
to  the  brief. 

Mass.  The  order  of  proofs  will  be  directed  more  by 
a  regard  for  coherence  than  by  a  regard  for  mass. 
Though  this  is  true,  as  far  as  possible,  without  weaken- 
ing the  chain  of  argument,  proofs  should  be  arranged  in 
the  order  of  climax.  This  does  not  mean,  however,  that 
the  weakest  argument  should  come  first,  and  the  next 
stronger  should  follow,  and  so  on  until  the  last  and 
strongest  is  reached.  After  the  introduction  has  been 
completed,  it  is  wise  to  open  the  argument  proper  with 
some  matter  strong  enough  to  convince  the  reader  that 
the  writer  knows  what  he  is  contending  for,  and  that 
he  can  strike  a  hard  blow.  Then  again,  it  is  evident 
that  in  all  arguments  there  are  main  points  in  the  dis- 
cussion that  must  be  established  by  points  of  minor 
importance.    The  main  proofs  should  be  arranged  in 


904,  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

logical  climax,  and  the  sub-topics  that  go  to  support 
one  of  the  main  divisions  may  have  their  smaller  climax. 
An  argument  gains  strength  when  it  advances  from 
weak  to  strong. 

Proportion.  Another  principle  that  should  be  recalled 
is  Proportion.  A  writer  should  not  waste  time  on  trifles. 
Things  of  importance  should  be  emphasized  by  length 
of  treatment.  Never  forget  that  the  establishment  of 
a  great  matter  is  so  important  to  an  argument  that 
many  lesser  matters  had  better  be  entirely  omitted,  if 
that  is  necessary.  Use  your  time  and  strength  in  doing 
a  big  thing;  never  believe  that  the  weight  of  an  argu- 
ment is  measured  by  the  number  of  proofs  offered. 
Fifty  trifles  cannot  balance  one  great  proposition. 

Coherence.  Coherence  of  thought  has  already  been 
secured  in  making  the  brief.  The  thing  of  importance 
now  is  to  express  clearly  that  close  relation  of  parts. 
The  careful  use  of  pronouns  and  conjunctions  to  show 
the  relation  of  one  thought  to  another;  the  frequent  re- 
petition of  words  to  bind  clauses  to  some  preceding  sen- 
tence; the  constant  use  of  summaries  and  transitions; 
the  intelligent  application  of  the  principle  of  parallel 
construction  —  all  mark  the  workmanship  of  a  person 
eager  to  make  clear  to  others  what  is  clear  to  himself. 

Of  these  principles,  stress  should  be  laid  upon  paral- 
lel construction,  transitions,  and  summaries.  Parallel 
construction  may  be  used  oftener  in  argumentation 
than  in  exposition.  In  exposition  it  seems  formal  and 
stilted,  when  followed  to  any  degree;  but  this  rarely 
occurs  in  argumentation  or  persuasion.  It  gives  clear- 
ness to  a  series  of  statements;  and  in  debate,  where  the 
parts  have  not  been  committed,  it  will  hardly  be  over- 
done. Good  examples  have  already  been  given  in  the 
chapter  on  Exposition.  Another  good  one  may  be  found 


PRINCIPLES  OF  STRUCTURE  305 

in  paragraph  133  of  the  Conciliation,  beginning  with 
the  words,  "  Compare  the  two." 

As  one  of  the  first  requisites  of  good  argument  is  that 
it  shall  be  clear,  transitions  and  summaries  are  extremely 
important.  Nothing  more  conduces  to  clearness  than  a 
short  summary  of  the  case  up  to  the  point  where  some 
new  proposition  is  to  be  introduced.  It  clears  the  way 
for  the  new  matter,  and  allows  the  hearer  time  to  per- 
ceive the  relation  of  the  next  step  in  the  proof  to  what  has 
preceded.  So,  too,  every  twist  and  turn  in  the  argument 
should  be  clearly  indicated  by  words  or  clauses  of 
transition.  They  point  the  way  for  the  hearer,  and 
save  him  many  a  useless  wandering  from  the  line  of 
argument.  Wherever  a  short  summary  or  a  word  of 
transition  will  make  the  argument  clearer,  that  word 
or  sentence  should  be  used. 

Sincerity.  The  use  of  persuasion  in  argumentation 
has  been  mentioned  several  times,  and  one  word  of  ad- 
vice may  be  useful.  Believe  in  your  subject.  While  it 
is  good  training  to  make  briefs  on  both  sides  of  a  ques- 
tion, and  in  debate  it  is  necessary,  no  person  can  ever 
be  at  his  best  in  speech  unless  he  believes  what  he  is 
saying.  Choice  words,  fine  phrases,  apt  illustrations, 
figures  of  speech,  which  seem  to  spring  from  the  dis- 
cussion, all  go  for  little  when  the  words  do  not  burn 
with  a  real  emotion.  The  unlettered  man  in  his  smock 
may  thrill  his  hearers  while  the  well-schooled  preacher 
in  his  frock  sends  his  audience  away  with  no  desire  for 
noble  action.  It  is  earnestness  and  sincerity  which  rouse 
men  to  action,  and  earnest  sincerity  needs  no  art  to 
make  itself  felt.  For  as  the  emotion  of  a  speaker  rises, 
conscious  only  of  his  message,  his  words  descend  to 
the  plane  of  every-day  life.  Believe  in  your  subject; 
be  sincere;  be  earnest;  be  simple.   Then  will  the  words 


S06  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

of  your  argument  be  tipped  with  fire  and  go  straight 
to  the  hearts  of  your  hearers.  Above  all,  be  fair  and 
honest;  only  so  can  you  gain  the  favor  of  your  audience, 
and  gain  what  is  worth  more  than  victory  —  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  a  servant  of  truth. 

EXERCISE 

Following  the  brief  you  have  prepared,  write  the 
complete  argument.  Give  especial  attention  to  your 
summaries  and  transitions  as  a  means  of  making  the 
argument  clear. 

ADDITIONAL  SUBJECTS  FOR  ARGUMENTATION 

1.  The  French  contributed  more  to  the  victory  at  Yorktown 
than  the  Americans. 

2.  England's  demands,  which  later  brought  on  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  were  just. 

5.  The  treatment  of  Benedict  Arnold  by  most  historians  has 
been  unfair. 

4.  The  Northmen  discovered  America. 

6.  The  Mexican  War  was  not  justifiable. 

6.  Final  examinations  should   be  given  in  high  schools  to 
determine  the  term  standings. 

7.  Secret  societies  in  high  schools  are  injurious  to  the  best 
interests  of  the  pupils. 

8.  An  honor  system  of  conducting  examinations  raises  the 
standard  of  honesty  among  students. 

9.  Admission  to  college  should  be  by  examination  only. 

10.  Coeducation  is  for  the  best  interests  of  students  attending 
public  schools. 

11.  All  professional  schools  should  require  at  least  two  years 
of  college  work  before  students  are  allowed  to  take  up 
their  special  studies. 

12.  No  prizes  shall  be  offered  for  merit  in  work  of  high  schools. 

13.  Pupils  should  be  supplied  with  free  text-books  in  the  high 
school. 

14.  All  studies  in  a  high-school  course  shall  be  elective. 


SUBJECTS  FOR  ARGUMENTATION  307 

15.  A  standard  play  should  be  presented  each  year  by  stu- 
dents in  the  high  school. 

16.  Slot  machines  for  vending  goods  by  chance  are  harm- 
ful. 

17.  Moving  picture  shows  are  an  injury  to  the  morals  of  the 
youth. 

18.  Bill-board  advertising  should  be  prohibited. 

19.  At  the  graduation  exercises  of  high  schools  essays  and  ora- 
tions by  the  graduates  should  not  be  allowed. 

20.  The  public  schools  should  make  provision  for  the  large 
numbers  of  youth  leaving  school  to  enter  industry  at  the 
age  of  fifteen. 

21.  A  college  course  should  be  limited  to  three  years. 

22.  No  student  at  college  should  be  permitted  to  play  on  any 
team  in  an  intercollegiate  contest  until  he  has  completed 
one  year  of  college  work  in  the  school  he  represents. 

23.  Organized  labor  should  enter  politics. 

24.  Direct  nominations  are  superior  to  nominations  made  by 
caucus  and  convention. 

25.  The  President  of  the  United  States  should  serve  but  one 
term  of  six  years. 

26.  In  a  trial,  except  in  cases  of  trial  for  murder,  it  shall  not 
require  a  unanimous  verdict  to  convict. 

27.  Equal  suffrage  should  be  granted  to  men  and  women. 

28.  The  introduction  of  machinery  has  been  an  injury  to  the 
laboring  men. 

29.  The  present  scale  of  expenditures  by  the  Government  on 
account  of  the  navy  is  unnecessary. 

30.  The  conditions  of  industry  would  be  improved  by  the 
closed  shop. 

31.  Wages  of  men  and  women  should  be  the  same  for  the  same 
service. 

32.  Prohibition  is  better  than  high  license  as  a  solution  of  the 
liquor  problem. 

33.  The  elimination  of  private  profits  in  the  business  offers 
the  best  solution  of  the  liquor  problem. 

34.  Labor  by  children  under  the  age  of  fourteen  should  be 
prohibited  by  the  state. 

S5.  All  persons  legally  qualified  shall  be  compelled  to  vote, 

unless  excused  for  sickness. 
36.  Vivisection  shall  be  prohibited. 


308  FORMS  OF  DISCOURSE 

37.  Old-age  pensions  shall  be  granted  to  every  man  above 
sixty-five  years  of  age. 

38.  The  boycott  as  a  means  of  securing  concessions  from  em- 
ployers is  justifiable. 

39.  All  public  buildings  should  be  closed  on  Sunday. 

40.  Ex-Presidents  of  the  United  States  should  be  made 
senators  for  life. 

41.  The  Commission  Form  of  government  should  be  adopted 
by  all  cities. 

42.  The  United  States  should  adopt  a  parcels-post  system. 

43.  The  sale  of  cigarettes  should  be  prohibited  by  the  state. 

44.  Rooting  that  is  intended  to  confuse  an  opposing  team  in  a 
contest  is  dishonorable. 

45.  Every  young  man  should  earn  his  own  way  through  col- 
lege. 

46.  No  person  should  be  allowed  to  vote  in  municipal  aflFairs 
unless  he  is  an  owner  of  property  to  the  amount  of  one 
hundred  dollars. 

47.  The  treatment  of  the  Indians  by  the  Government  has  been 
unjust. 

48.  The  United  States  should  retain  the  Philippines. 


CHAPTER  VII 

FIGURES  OF  SPEECH 

Figurative  Language.  There  is  a  generally  accepted 
division  o|  language  into  literal  and  figurative.  Lan- 
guage that  is  literal  uses  words  in  their  accepted  and 
accurate  meaning.  Figurative  language  employs  words 
with  meanings  not  strictly  literal,  but  varying  from 
their  ordinary  definitions. 

Much  of  our  language  is  figurative.  When  a  person 
says,  "  He  is  a  bright  boy,*'  he  has  used  the  word 
"bright"  in  a  sense  that  is  not  literal;  the  use  is  fig- 
urative. Id  the  following  there  is  hardly  a  sentence  that 
has  not  some  variation  from  literal  language :  — 

Down  by  the  river  there  is,  as  yet,  little  sign  of  spring. 
Its  bed  is  all  choked  with  last  year's  reeds,  trampled  about 
like  a  manger.  Yet  its  running  seems  to  have  caught  a  hap- 
pier note,  and  here  and  there  along  its  banks  flash  silvery 
wands  of  palm.  Right  down  among  the  shabby  burnt-out 
underwood  moves  the  sordid  figure  of  a  man.  His  hat  is 
battered,  and  he  wears  no  collar.  I  don't  like  staring  at  his 
face,  for  he  has  been  unfortunate.  Yet  a  glimpse  tells  me  that 
he  is  far  down  the  hill  of  life,  old  and  drink-corroded  at  fifty. 
— Le  Gallienne. 

In  the  second  sentence  there  are  at  least  three  figura- 
tive expressions.  "  Bed,"  "  choked,"  and  "  trampled 
about  like  a  manger  "  are  not  literal.  So,  too,  in  the 
next  sentence  there  are  two  beautiful  variations  from 
literal  expression.  Going  on  through  the  selection,  the 
reader  will  find  frequently  some  happy  change  from 


810  FIGURES  OF  SPEECH 

literalness  —  sometimes    just    a   word,    sometimes    a 
phrase. 

Figurative  language  is  of  great  value.  It  adds  clear- 
ness to  our  speech;  it  gives  it  more  force;  or  it  imparts 
to  literature  added  beauty.  The  last  use  is  the  most 
common;  indeed,  it  is  so  common  that  the  other  uses 
are  sometimes  overlooked.  However,  in  a  sentence  like 
the  following,  the  comparison  is  of  value  because  it  gives 
clearness  to  the  thought,  although  it  does  not  state  a 
literal  truth :  -^ 

In  the  early  history  of  our  planet,  the  moon  was  flung  oflE 
into  space,  as  mud  is  thrown  from  a  turning  wagon  wheel. 

The  following  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  gain  in  force 
by  the  use  of  figurative  language:  — 

The  Alps  themselves,  which  your  own  poets  used  to  love  so 
reverently,  you  look  upon  as  soaped  poles  in  a  bear-garden, 
which  you  set  yourselves  to  climb  and  slide  down  again  with 
"shrieks  of  delight."  —  Ruskin. 

The  next  is  an  illustration  of  a  figure  used  for  beauty: 

Two  of  the  fairest  stars  in  all  the  heaven. 
Having  some  business,  do  entreat  her  eyes 
To  twinkle  in  their  spheres  till  they  return. 

A  figure  of  speech  is  any  use  of  words  with  a  sense  varying 
from  their  literal  definition,  to  secure  clearness,  force,  or  beauty 
of  expression. 

Figures  add  so  much  to  the  attractiveness  of  liter- 
ature that  every  one  would  like  to  use  them.  Yet  fig- 
ures should  never  be  sought  for.  When  they  come  of 
themselves,  when  they  insist  on  being  used,  and  are  a 
part  of  the  thought  itself,  and  seem  to  be  its  only  ade- 
quate expression,  then  they  should  be  used.  In  most 
cases  figures  are  ornaments  of  literature;  it  must  be 


FIGURES  OF  SPEECH  311 

remembered  that  ornament  is  always  secondary,  and 
that  no  ornament  is  good  unless  it  is  in  entire  harmony 
with  the  thing  it  is  to  beautify. 

When  a  figure  suggests  itself,  it  must  be  so  clearly 
seen  that  there  can  be  no  mixing  of  images.  Some 
people  are  determined  to  use  figures,  and  they  force 
them  into  every  possible  place.  The  result  is  that 
there  is  often  a  confusion  of  comparisons.  The  follow- 
ing is  bad:  "  His  name  went  resounding  in  golden  let- 
ters through  the  corridors  of  time."  Just  how  a  name 
could  resound  "  in  golden  letters  "  is  a  difficult  question. 
Longfellow  used  the  last  phrase  of  the  figure  beauti- 
fully:— 

Not  from  the  grand  old  masters. 

Not  from  the  bards  sublime. 
Whose  distant  footsteps  echo 

Through  the  corridors  of  time. 

Of  the  two  hundred  or  more  figures  of  speech  which 
have  been  named  and  defined,  only  a  few  need  be  men- 
tioned here.  And  the  purpose  is  not  that  you  shall 
use  them  more,  but  that  you  may  recognize  them  when 
you  meet  them  in  literature. 

Figures  based  upon  likeness.  There  is  a  large  group 
of  figures  of  speech  based  upon  likeness.  One  thing  is  so 
much  like  another  that  it  is  spoken  of  as  like  it ;  or,  more 
frequently,  one  is  said  to  be  the  other.  Yet  if  the  things 
compared  are  very  much  alike,  there  is  no  figure.  To 
say  that  a  cat  is  like  a  panther  is  not  considered  figura- 
tive. It  is  when  in  objects  essentially  different  we  detect 
and  name  some  likeness  that  we  say  there  is  a  figure  of 
speech.  There  is  at  first  thought  no  likeness  between 
hope  and  a  nurse;  yet  were  it  not  for  hope  most  persons 
would  be  sick  at  heart.  Thackeray  was  right  when  he 
said  that  "  Hope  is  the  nurse  of  life." 


312  FIGURES  OF  SPEECH 

The  principal  figures  based  upon  likeness  are  simile, 
metaphor,  epithet,  personification,  apostrophe,  and 
allegory. 

A  simile  is  an  expressed  comparison  between  unlike  things 
that  have  a  common  quality.  This  comparison  is  usually  indi- 
cated by  like  or  as. 

The  smaller  stars,  like  little  children,  went  first  to  bed. 

Far  in  the  distance  the  river  gleamed  like  a  flashing  sword 
of  silver. 

How  far  that  little  candle  throws  its  beams! 
So  shines  a  good  deed  in  a  naughty  world. 

A  metaphor  is  an  implied  comparison  between  things  essen- 
tially different,  but  having  some  common  quality. 

Metaphor  is  by  far  the  most  common  figure  of  speech; 
indeed,  so  common  is  it  that  figurative  language  is  often 
called  metaphorical. 

The  cataracts  blow  their  trumpets  from  the  steep. 

Hearty  and  hale  was  he,  an  oak  that  is  covered  with  snow-flakes. 

Life  is  not  an  idle  ore, 
But  iron  dug  from  central  gloom, 
And  heated  hot  with  burning  fears. 
And  dipt  in  baths  of  hissing  tears. 
And  battered  with  the  shocks  of  doom 
To  shape  and  use. 

Only  a  little  removed  from  metaphor  is  epithet. 

An  epithet  is  a  word,  generally  an  adjective,  used  not  to  qual- 
ify or  to  give  information,  but  to  point  out  and  impart  strength 
or  ornament  to  diction. 

Alexander  the  Great;  Aristides  the  Just;  Richard  the  Lion- 
hearted. 

Hearken,  my  white-armed  women,  while  I  speak. 

Blue-eyed  Day,  throned  on  his  diamond  car. 


FIGURES  OF  SPEECH  313 

Personification  is  a  figure  that  ascribes  to  inanimate  things, 
to  abstract  ideas,  or  to  the  lower  animals  the  attributes  of  human 
beings. 

It  is  plain  that  there  must  be  some  resemblance  of 
the  lower  to  the  higher,  else  this  figure  could  not  be 
used.  Personification,  like  the  epithet,  is  a  modification 
of  the  metaphor.  Indeed,  in  every  personification  there 
is  also  a  metaphor. 

When  the  sweet  wind  did  gently  kiss  the  trees 
And  they  did  make  no  noise. 
Now  came  still  evening  on,  and  twilight  gray 
Had  in  her  sober  livery  all  things  clad. 

Apostrophe  is  an  address  to  the  dead  as  if  living;  to  abstract 
ideas  or  inanimate  objects  as  if  they  were  persons. 

It  is  a  variety  of  personification. 

Milton!  thou  shouldst  be  living  at  this  hour. 
O  star-eyed  Science!  thou  hast  wandered  far. 

An  allegory  is  an  extended  metaphor,  in  which  concrete  ob- 
jects are  made  to  represent  things  spiritual  in  order  to  present 
high  truths  with  vividness  and  power. 

Bunyan*s  Pilgrim's  Progress  and  Spenser's  Faerie 
Queene  are  good  examples  of  allegory. 

Figures  based  upon  other  relations.  There  are  some 
figures  of  speech  that  are  based  not  upon  resemblance 
but  upon  some  other  relation.  Two  things  may  be  so 
related  that  the  name  of  the  one  will  suggest  the  other 
with  greater  vividness  or  added  meaning.  The  most 
common  of  these  figures  are  metonymy,  allusion,  and 
hyperbole.' 

»  Formerly  synecdoche  was  given  as  a  figure  of  speech.   It  is  now  gener- 
ally included  in  the  definition  of  metonymy.    Synecdoche  is  a  figure  of 
speech  in  which  a  part  is  used  for  the  whole,  or  rarely,  the  whole  for  a  part. 
The  red-coats  are  marching. 


314  FIGURES  OF  SPEECH 

Metonymy  is  a  figure  of  speech  in  which  one  term  is  used  for 
another  to  which  it  is  closely  related. 

The  most  common  relations  are  cause  and  effect,  sign 
and  thing  signified,  part  and  whole,  container  and  thing 
contained. 

With  that  shot,  a  nation  was  turned  from  paeans  of  victory 
to  the  knell  of  a  great  defeat. 

From  the  cradle  to  the  grave  is  but  a  day. 
,  I  did  dream  of  money-bags  to-night. 
Fifty  sail  came  into  harbor. 

Allusion  is  a  figure  of  speech  in  which,  for  rhetorical  effect, 
a  reference  is  made  to  some  familiar  fact  of  history  or  literature. 

A  Daniel  come  to  judgment!  yea,  a  Daniel! 

Men  still  sigh  for  the  fleshpots  of  Egypt;  still  worship  the 
golden  calf. 

There  is  no  "Open  Sesame"  to  the  treasures  of  learning; 
they  must  be  acquired  by  hard  study. 

Milton  and  Shakespeare  are  full  of  allusions  to  the 
classic  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

Hyperbole  is  an  exaggerated  statement  made  for  effect. 

He  was  tall,  but  exceedingly  lank,  with  narrow  shoulders, 
long  arms  and  legs,  hands  that  dangled  a  mile  out  of  his 
sleeves,  feet  that  might  have  served  for  shovels,  and  his 
whole  frame  most  loosely  hung  together. 

And,  if  thou  prate  of  mountains,  let  them  throw 
Millions  of  acres  on  us,  till  our  ground. 
Singeing  his  pate  against  the  burning  zone. 
Make  Ossa  like  a  wart! 

Figures  based  upon  sentence  structure.  There  are  a 
number  of  variations  of  sentence  structure,  which  are 
made  for  emotional  effect,  and  hence  are  generally 
classed  among  figures  of  speech. 

Among  these  are  interrogation,  climax,  and  irony. 


FIGURES  OF  SPEECH  315 

Interrogation  is  a  figure  in  which  a  question  is  asked,  not  to 
get  an  answer,  but  for  the  sake  of  emphasis. 

Do  men  gather  grapes  from  thorns,  or  figs  from  thistles? 

Fear  ye  foes  who  kill  for  hire? 
Will  ye  to  your  homes  retire? 

Lear :  Doth  any  here  know  me  ?   This  is  not  Lear: 

Doth  Lear  walk  thus  ?    speak  thus  ?    Where  are  his  eyes  ? 

Climax  is  a  figure  in  which  the  intensity  of  the  thought  and  emo- 
tion gradually  increases  with  the  successive  groups  of  words  or 
phrases. 

Your  children  do  not  grow  faster  from  infancy  to  manhood 
than  they  [the  American  colonists]  spread  from  families  to 
communities,  from  villages  to  nations. 

Irony  is  a  figure  in  which  one  thing  is  said  and  the  opposite 
is  meant 

And  Job  answered  and  said,  No  doubt  but  ye  are  the  people, 
and  wisdom  shall  die  with  you. 

Here,  under  leave  of  Brutus  and  the  rest,  — 
For  Brutus  is  an  honourable  man; 
So  are  they  all,  all  honourable  men,  — 
Come  I  to  speak  in  Caesar's  funeral. 


EXERCISE 

Name  the  figures  in  the  following  sentences.  Of  those 
that  are  based  on  likeness,  tell  in  what  the  resemblance 
consists.  In  many  of  the  selections  more  than  one  figure 
will  be  found.  ^ 

1.  The  long,  hard  winter  of  his  youth  had  ended;  the  spring- 
time of  his  manhood  was  turning  green  like  the  woods. 

2.  A  pig  came  up  to  a  horse  and  said,  "Your  feet  are  crooked, 
and  your  hair  is  worth  nothing." 

*  In  any  piece  of  literature  there  are  many  figures.  The  following  should 
be  used  only  to  make  yourselves  familiar  with  varieties  of  figures.  You 
will  find  many  more  in  the  literature  you  read. 


S16  FIGURES  OF  SPEECH 

3.  The  words  of  his  mouth  were  smoother  than  butter,  but 
war  was  in  his  heart;  his  words  were  softer  than  oil,  but 
they  were  drawn  swords. 

4.  The  lily  maid  of  Astolat. 

5.  You  have  a  nimble  wit:  I  think  *t  was  made  of  Atalanta*s 
heels. 

6.  The  birch,  most  shy  and  ladylike  of  trees. 
Her  poverty,  as  best  she  may,  retrieves. 
And  hints  at  her  foregone  gentilities 

With  some  saved  relics  of  her  wealth  of  leaves. 

7.  O  friend,  never  strike  sail  to  a  fear!  Come  into  port 
grandly,  or  sail  with  God  the  seas! 

8.  Primroses  smile  and  daisies  cannot  frown. 

9.  How  deeply  and  warmly  and  spotlessly  Earth's  naked- 
ness is  clothed!  —  the  "wool"  of  the  Psalmist  nearly 
two  feet  deep.  And  as  far  as  warmth  and  protection  are 
concerned,  there  is  a  good  deal  of  the  virtue  of  wool  in 
such  a  snow-fall.  It  is  a  veritable  fleece,  beneath  which 
the  shivering  earth  ("the  frozen  hills  ached  with  pain," 
says  one  of  our  young  poets)  is  restored  to  warmth. 

10.  We  can  win  no  laurels  in  a  war  for  independence.  Ear- 
lier and  worthier  hands  have  gathered  them  all.  Nor 
are  there  places  for  us  by  the  side  of  Solon  and  Alfred  and 
other  founders  of  States.  Our  fathers  have  filled  them. 

11.  I  put  on  righteousness,  and  it  clothed  me;  my  judgment 
was  as  a  robe  and  diadem. 

I  was  eyes  to  the  blind,  and  feet  was  I  to  the  lame. 

I  was  father  to  the  poor;  and  the  cause  which  I  knew 

not  I  searched  out. 

And  I  brake  the  jaws  of  the  wicked,  and  plucked  the  spoil 

out  of  his  teeth. 

12.  His  head  and  his  heart  were  so  well  combined  that  he 
could  not  avoid  becoming  a  power  in  his  community. 

13.  Spenser,  writing  of  honor,  says:  — 

In  woods,  in  waves,  in  wars,  she  wonts  to  dwell, 
And  will  be  found  with  peril  and  with  pain; 
Nor  can  the  man  that  moulds  an  idle  cell 
Unto  her  happy  mansion  attain : 
BeWe  her  gate  high  God  did  Sweat  ordain. 
And  wakeful  watches  ever  to  abide; 


FIGURES  OF  SPEECH  817 

But  easy  is  the  way  and  passage  plain 

To  pleasure's  palace:  it  may  soon  be  spied. 

And  day  and  night  her  doors  to  all  stand  open  wide. 

14.  Over  the  vast  green  sea  of  the  wilderness,  the  moon  swung 
her  silvery  lamp. 

15.  The  peace  of  thie  golden  sunshine  was  supreme.    Even 

a  tiny  cloudlet  anchored  in  the  limitless  sky  would  not 
sail  to-day. 

16.  A  short  way  further  along,  I  came  across  a  boy  gather- 
ing palm.  He  is  a  town  boy,  and  has  come  all  the  way  from 
Whitechapel  thus  early.  He  has  already  gathered  a  great 
bundle  —  worth  five  shillings  to  him,  he  says.  This  same 
palm  will  to-morrow  be  distributed  over  London,  and  those 
who  buy  sprigs  of  it  by  the  Bank  will  know  nothing  of 
the  blue-eyed  boy  who  gathered  it,  and  the  murmuring 
river  by  which  it  grew.  And  the  lad,  once  more  lost  in 
some  squalid  court,  will  be  a  sort  of  Sir  John  Mandeville 
to  his  companions  —  a  Sir  John  Mandeville  of  the  fields, 
with  their  water-rats,  their  birds'  eggs,  and  many  other 
wonders.  And  one  can  imagine  him  saying,  "And  the 
sparrows  there  fly  right  up  into  the  sun,  and  sing  like 
angels."  But  he  won't  get  his  comrades  to  believe  that. 

17.  We  wandered  to  the  Pine  Forest 

That  skirts  the  Ocean's  foam; 
The  lightest  wind  was  in  its  nest. 

The  tempest  in  its  home. 
The  whispering  waves  were  half  asleep. 

The  clouds  were  gone  to  play. 
And  on  the  bosom  of  the  deep 

The  smile  of  heaven  lay; 
It  seemed  as  if  the  hour  were  one 

Sent  from  beyond  the  skies. 
Which  scattered  from  above  the  sun 

The  light  of  Paradise. 

We  paused  amid  the  pines  that  stood 

The  giants  of  the  waste. 
Tortured  by  storms  to  shapes  as  rude 

As  serpents  interlaced,  — 


S18  FIGURES  OF  SPEECH 

And  soothed  by  every  azure  breath 

That  under  heaven  is  blown. 
To  harmonies  and  hues  beneath. 

As  tender  as  its  own: 
Now  all  the  tree-tops  lay  asleep 

Like  green  waves  on  the  sea. 
As  still  as  in  the  silent  deep 

The  ocean  woods  may  be. 

18.  When  a  bee  brings  pollen  into  the  hive,  he  advances  to 
the  cell  in  which  it  is  to  be  deposited  and  kicks  it  off  as 
one  might  his  overalls  or  rubber  boots,  making  one  foot 
help  the  other;  then  he  walks  off  without  ever  looking 
behind  him ;  another  bee,  one  of  the  indoor  hands,  comes 
along  and  rams  it  down  with  his  head  and  packs  it  in  the 
cell  as  the  dairy-maid  packs  butter  into  a  firkin. 

19.  For  thy  desires 

Are  wolfish,  bloody,  starved,  and  ravenous. 

20.  What  a  piece  of  work  is  man!  how  noble  in  reason!  how 
infinite  in  faculty!  in  form  and  moving  how  express  and 
admirable!  in  action  how  like  an  angel!  in  apprehension 
how  like  a  god!  the  beauty  of  the  world!  the  paragon  of 
animals! 

21.  And  in  her  cheeks  the  vermeil  red  did  shew 
Like  roses  in  a  bed  of  lilies  shed. 

22.  The  early  rose-fingered  dawn  appeared. 

23.  A  true  poet  is  not  one  whom  they  can  hire  by  money 
and  flattery  to  be  a  minister  of  their  pleasures,  their 
writer  of  occasional  verses,  their  purveyor  of  table  wit; 
he  cannot  be  their  menial,  he  cannot  even  be  their  parti- 
san. At  the  peril  of  both  parties  let  no  such  union  be 
attempted.  Will  a  Courser  of  the  Sun  work  softly  in  the 
harness  of  a  Dray-horse.'^  His  hoofs  are  of  fire,  and  his 
path  is  through  the  heavens,  bringing  light  to  all  lands; 
will  he  lumber  on  mud  highways,  dragging  ale  for  earthly 
appetites  from  door  to  door? 

24.  Hath  a  dog  money?  is  it  possible 

A  cur  can  lend  three  thousand  ducats? 


FIGURES  OF  SPEECH  319 

25.  Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coronets. 
And  simple  faith  than  Norman  blood. 

26.  They  sleep  together,  —  the  gray  and  the  blue. 

27.  Have  not  the  Indians  been  kindly  and  justly  treated? 
Have  not  the  temporal  things  —  the  vain  baubles  and 
filthy  lucre  of  this  world  —  which  were  apt  to  engage 
their  worldly  and  selfish  thoughts,  been  benevolently 
taken  from  them?  And  have  they  not,  instead  thereof, 
been  taught  to  set  their  affections  on  things  above  ? 

28.  Thy  word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet. 

29.  His  words  were  shed  softer  than  leaves  from  the  pine. 
And  they  fell  on  Sir  Launfal  as  snows  on  the  brine. 
That  mingle  their  softness  and  quiet  in  one 

With  the  shaggy  unrest  they  float  down  upon. 

30.  Too  much  red  tape  caused  a  great  amount  of  suffering  in 
the  beginning  of  the  war. 

31.  Roll  on,  thou  deep  and  dark  blue  ocean,  roll! 
Ten  thousand  fleets  sweep  over  thee  in  vain. 

32.  The  old  Mountain  has  thrown  a  stone  at  us  for  fear  we 
should  forget  him.  He  sometimes,  nods  his  head,  and 
threatens  to  come  down. 

S3.  But  pleasures  are  like  poppies  spread: 

You  seize  the  flow'r,  its  bloom  is  shed; 
Or  like  the  snow  falls  in  the  river, 
A  moment  white  —  then  melts  forever; 
Or  like  the  borealis  race. 
That  flit  ere  you  can  point  their  place  ; 
Or  like  the  rainbow's  lovely  form 
Evanishing  amid  the  storm. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

VERSE  FORMS 

Accent.  Though  no  one  is  inclined  to  sing  prose,  no 
pupil  has  passed  through  the  graded  schools  without 
being  told  that  he  should  not  sing  verse.  One  can 
scarcely  help  singing  verse,  and  one  cannot  well  sing 
prose. 

What  is  there  about  the  form  that  leads  us  to  sing 
verses  of  poetry?  For  example,  when  we  read  the  first 
lines  of  The  Lady  of  the  Lake,  we  fall  naturally  into  a 
singsong  which  can  be  represented  by  musical  notation 
as  follows:  — 

;  J  ;j  ;  J  ij 

I  The  stag  |  at  eve  1  had  drunk  |  his  fill, 
I  Where  danced  |  the  moon  |  on  Mo|nan's  rill,  | 
I  And  deep  |  his  mid  [night  lair  |  had  made  | 
I  In  lone  |  Glenart|ney's  ha|zel  shade.  | 

The  second,  fourth,  sixth,  and  eighth  syllables  in  each 
of  these  lines  are  naturally  accented  in  reading,  while  the 
other  syllables  are  read  without  stress.  The  eight  syl- 
lables of  each  hue  fall  naturally  into  groups  of  two,  an 
unaccented  syllable  followed  by  an  accented  syllable, 
just  as  in  the  musical  notation  given,  an  unaccented 
eighth  note  is  followed  by  an  accented  quarter. 

In  Hiawatha  the  accented  syllable  comes  first,  and  the 
unaccented  follows  it. 


VERSE   FORMS  S21 

J ;  j ;  J ;  J ; 

I  By  the  |  shores  of  |  Gitchie  |  Gumee,  | 
{  By  the  I  shining  |  Big-Sea  [-Water,  | 
I  Stood  the  I  wigwam  |  of  No|komis,  | 
I  Daughter  |  of  the  |  Moon,  No|komis.  | 

So,  too,  there  are  groups  of  three  syllables.  In  such  a 
group,  the  accent  may  fall  on  either  the  first  or  the  last; 
and  possibly,  at  rare  intervals,  upon  the  middle  syllable. 
The  first  two  lines  below  are  from  The  Bridge  of  Sighs; 
the  accent  is  on  the  first  syllable  of  the  group. 

I  Touch  her  not  ]  scornfully;  I 
I  Think  of  her  |  mournfully.  | 

So  it  is  in  the  line  from  Longfellow,  — 

i  Better  be  |  dead  and  for|gotten,  than  |  living  in  |  shame  and  dis-| 
honor. 

Now  take   the   following  lines  from  Lochinvar,  in 
which  the  accent  falls  on  the  last  syllable  of  the  group. 
I  There  was  rac|ing  and  chasjing  on  Can|nobie  Lee,  | 
I  But  the  lost  I  bride  of  Neth|erby  ne'er  |  did  they  see.  | 

And  these  from  Browning's  How  They  Brought  the 
Good  News  from  Ghent  to  Aix:  — 

I  And  his  low  |  head  and  crest,  I  just  one  sharp  |  ear  bent  back  | 
I  For  my  voice,  |  and  the  oth|er  pricked  out  |  on  his  track;  | 
I  And  one  eye's  |  black  intel|ligence,  —  evier  that  glance  | 
1  O'er  its  white  |  edge  at  me,  |  his  own  masjter,  askance!  | 

(For  a  group  of  three  syllables  accented  on  the  sec- 
ond, see  the  "  Note  "  on  page  322.) 

Kinds  of  feet.  In  all  these  verses  it  will  be  noted 
that  in  each  group  of  syllables  there  is  one  accented  syl- 
lable combined  with  either  one  or  two  unaccented 


322  VERSE  FORMS 

syllables.  Such  a  group  of  syllables  is  called  a /oof.  The 
foot  is  the  basis  of  verse;  and  the  repetition  of  any  kind 
of  foot  gives  to  each  verse  its  own  pecuhar  swing,  or 
rhythm. 

A  foot  is  a  group  of  syllables  composed  of  one  accented  syllable 
combined  with  one  or  more  unaccented  syllables. 

There  are  four  forms  of  poetic  feet  in  common  use  in 
Enghsh  poetry.  They  are  iambus,  trochee,  dactyl,  and 
anapest. 

An  iambus  is  a  two-syllable  foot  accented  on  the  last  syllable. 
Verse  made  of  feet  of  this  kind  is  called  iambic.  It  is  by 
far  the  most  common  foot  in  English  poetry. 

I  Old  Kaslpar  took  |  it  from  |  the  boy.  | 
A  trochee  is  a  two-syllable  foot  accented  on  the  first  syllable. 
Verse  made  of  feet  of  this  kind  is  called  trochaic. 
I  Armour's  |  clang  or  |  war-steed  |  champing.  | 
A  dactyl^  is  a  three-syllable  foot  accented  on  the  first  syllable. 
Verse  made  of  feet  of  this  kind  is  called  dactylic. 

I  We  that  had  |  lov'd  him  so,  |  follow'd  him,  |  honor'd  him.  | 

An  anapest^  is  a  three -syllable  foot  accented  on  the  last  syl- 
lable. 

It  is  a  reversed  dactyl.  Verse  made  of  feet  of  this  kind 

is  called  anapestic. 

I  And  it's  room  |  for  the  bon|nets  of  bon|ny  Dundee.  | 

Note.  Two  other  feet  are  occasionally  found  in  English  poetry: 
the  amphibrach  and  the  spondee. 

An  amphibrach  (from  a  Greek  word  meaning  "short  at  both 
ends")  is  a  three-syllable  foot  accented  on  the  middle  syllable. 
There  are  a  few  lines  in  English  verse  that  seem  to  be  made  up  of 

1  From  the  Greek  word  signifying  "  finger,"  applied  to  this  foot,  because, 
like  the  finger,  it  is  made  of  one  long  joint  and  two  shorter. 

2  From  a  Greek  word  meaning  "  thrown  back,  reversed." 


VERSE  FORMS  323 

amphibrachs;  but  they  are  very  few.  And  even  these  may  always 
be  scanned  in  some  other  way. 

I    O  talk  not  |  to  me  of  I  a  name  great  I  in  story,  | 

i  The  days  of  I  our  youth  are  |  the  days  of  |  our  glory.  | 

A  spondee  is  a  two-syllable  foot  in  which  both  syllables  are  long 
and  receive  the  accent  about  equally.  It  is  not  found  in  English 
verse  except  as  an  occasional  foot. 

I  Wee  folk,  I  good  folk,  I 
I  Trooping  |  all  tolgether.  | 

Kinds  of  verse.  A  single  foot,  no  matter  what  its 
kind,  seldom  stands  alone;  but  in  combination  with 
other  feet  it  makes  up  a  line,  or  verse.  A  single  line 
of  poetry  is  called  a  verse.  A  group  of  verses  makes  a 
stanza. 

A  verse  may  be  made  up  of  any  number  of  feet  from 
one  to  eight.  Its  name  is  derived  from  the  word  meter, 
meaning  "measure,"  with  a  prefix  signifying  some 
number:  mono,  one;  di,  two;  tri,  three;  tetrayiour;  penta, 
five;  hexa,  six;  hepta,  seven;  octo,  eight. 

Verse  made  of  one  foot  is  called  monometer  (mo  nom'e  ter). 

It  is  almost  never  used  throughout  a  poem,  except  for 
fun;  but  it  is  sometimes  found  as  an  occasional  line  in  a 
poem  that  is  made  of  longer  verses. 

Then  nightly  sings  the  staring  owl, 
I  Tu-wbh.  1 
Verse  made  of  two  feet  is  called  dimeter  (dim'e  ter). 

It,  too,  is  uncommon.  It  rarely  makes  up  a  whole  poem; 
but  it  often  appears  as  an  occasional  line. 

I  Ye  are  young,]  ye  are  young, | 
1 1  am  old,|Iamold;  | 


824  VERSE  FORMS 

I  And  the  song  |  has  been  sung, 
I  And  the  sto|ry  been  told.  | 

So  long  Thy  power  hath  blessed  me,  sure  it  still 

I  Will  lead  |  me  on,| 
O'er  moor  and  fen,  o'er  crag  and  torrent,  till 

I  The  night  |  is  gone;  | 
And  with  the  morn  those  angel  faces  smile 
Which  I  have  loved  long  since,  and  lost  awhile. 

Verse  made  of  three  feet  is  called  trimeter  (trim'e  ter). 

I  Good  thoughts  1  his  on|ly  friends,  | 
His  wealth  a  well-spent  age. 
The  earth  his  sober  inn 
And  quiet  pilgrimage. 

Verse  made  of  fotir  feet  is  called  tetrameter  (tet  ram'e  ter). 

Marmion  and  Hiawatha  are  written  in  tetrameter. 

Verse  made  of  five  feet  is  called  pentameter  (pen  tam'e  ter). 

This  line  is  very  common  in  English  poetry.  It  gives 
room  enough  for  the  poet  to  say  something,  and  is  not  so 
long  that  it  breaks  down  with  its  own  weight.  Shake- 
sp)eare*s  plays,  Milton's  Paradise  LosU  Tennyson's 
Idylls  of  the  King,  —  indeed,  most  of  the  great,  serious 
work  of  the  master-poets  has  been  done  in  this  verse. 

Verse  made  of  six  feet  is  called  hexameter  (hex  am'e  ter). 

This  is  the  form  adopted  in  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey 
of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Mneid  of  the  Romans;  it  has 
been  used  sometimes  by  English  writers  in  treating 
dignified  subjects.  The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish  and 
Evangeline  are  written  in  hexameter. 

Verses  of  seven  and  eight  feet  are  rare;  they  are 
called  heptameter  (hep  tam'e  ter)  and  octameter  (oc  tam'- 
e  ter),  respectively.  The  heptameter  is  usually  divided 
into  a  tetrameter  and  a  trimeter;  the  octameter,  into 


VERSE  FORMS  325 

two  tetrameters.  Poe*s  Raven  and  Tennyson*s  Locksley 
Hall  are  in  octameter;  Bryant's  The  Death  of  the  Flowers 
is  in  heptameter. 

Scansion.  Scansion  is  the  separation  of  a  verse  into  its 
component  feet. 

Poetry  was  originally  sung  or  chanted  by  bards  and 
minstrels.  The  accompaniment  was  a  simple  strumming 
on  a  harp  of  very  few  strings,  and  was  hardly  more  than 
the  beating  of  time.  The  chanting  must  have  been  much 
like  the  sing-song  that  some  people  fall  into  when  read- 
ing verses  now.  The  first  thing  in  scanning  a  line  of 
poetry  is  to  drop  into  its  rhythm  —  to  let  it  sing  itself. 
When  the  regular  accent  is  felt,  the  lines  can  easily  be 
separated  into  their  metrical  feet.  Read  these  lines  from 
Marmion,  and  mark  only  the  accented  syllables  :  — 

And  there  she  stood  so  calm  and  pale. 
That  but  her  breathing  did  not  fail. 
And  motion  slight  of  eyes  and  head. 
And  of  her  bosom  warranted 
That  neither  sense  nor  pulse  she  lacks. 
You  might  have  thought  a  form  of  wax 
Wrought  to  the  very  life  was  there; 
So  still  she  was,  so  pale,  so  fair. 

The  marked  verses  have  an  accented  syllable  pre- 
ceded by  an  unaccented  syllable.  Such  a  foot  is  iambic. 
There  are  four  feet  in  each  verse;  so  the  poem  is  written 
in  iambic  tetrameter.  In  the  same  way,  we  name  all  the 
verses  of  poetry  by  the  prevailing  kind  of  foot  and  the 
number  of  feet.  So  we  decide  that  Hiawatha  is  written 
in  trochaic  tetrameter;  the  verse  in  The  Merchant  of 
Venice  in  iambic  pentameter;  and  The  Courtship  of  Miles 
Standish  in  dactylic  hexameter. 

Variations  in  verse.  Verses  are  not  always  as  reg- 
ular as  those  from  Hiawatha  and  Marmion;  and  in 


326  VERSE  FORMS 

order  to  scan  a  verse  correctly,  it  is  necessary  to  know 
the  most  common  variations  found  in  poetry. 

This  stanza  is  from  Three  Years  She  Grew  in  Sun  and 
Shower,  written  in  iambics.  Yet  in  the  fourth  line  and 
again  in  the  fifth  occurs  an  anapest. 

The  stars  of  midnight  shall  be  dear 
To  her,  and  she  shall  lean  her  ear 
In  many  a  secret  place 

11         s 

I  Where  riv|ulets  dance  |  their  way  |  ward  round,  j 

12  8 

And  beau|ty  bom  |  of  mur [muring  sound  | 
Shall  pass  into  her  face. 

The  following  lines  are  from  My  Heart  *s  in  the  High- 
lands, in  which  the  prevailing  foot  is  anapestic.  Yet 
every  line  begins  with  an  iambus. 

1  s 

My  heart's  |  in  the  Highjlands,  my  heart  |  is  not  here;  | 
My  heart's  in  the  Highlands,  a-chasing  the  deer. 

Here  are  the  first  four  lines  of  Dickens's  poem  The  Ivy 
Green;  the  feet  are  so  interchanged  that  it  is  difficult  to 
tell  whether  the  prevailing  foot  is  iambic  or  anapestic. 

lis  IS  ISSl  s 

Oh,  a  dain|ty  plant  |  is  the  i|vy  green,  | 

1  2  I  J  8      I       « 

That  creepleth  o'er  ru|ins  old!  | 
Of  right  choice  food  are  his  meals,  I  ween. 
In  his  cell  so  lone  and  cold. 

From  these  illustrations  w^e  see  that  so  long  as  the  accent 
remains  on  the  last  syllable  of  the  foot,  there  is  no  break 
in  the  flow  of  the  lines.  The  substitution  of  an  iambus 
for  an  anapest,  or  an  anapest  for  an  iambus,  is  very 
common. 

Now,  using  Hiawatha,  a  poem  in  trochees,  we  find  that 
sometimes  a  dactyl  may  be  used  in  place  of  a  trochee. 


VERSE  FORMS  327 

I  And  he  |  journeyed  |  without  |  resting,  | 

ISl  3  lis  It 

I  Till  he  I  heard  the  |  cataract's  |  laughter.  | 

So,  too,  in  Evangeliney  a  poem  written  in  dactyls, 
there  will  be  found  many  trochees.   For  example,  — 

lis  12  1  33  13  13S  1 

Solemnly  |  down  the  |  street  came  the  |  parish  |  priest,  and  the  |  chil- 
dren I 
Paused  in  their  play  to  kiss  the  hand  he  extended  to  bless  them. 

Here  again  we  find  that  substitution  does  not  disturb 
the  rhythm  provided  the  accent  remains  upon  the  first 
syllable  of  the  foot;  that  is  to  say,  dactyls  and  trochees 
are  interchangeable.  The  important  thing  always  is 
that  the  accent  must  remain  regular,  must  fall  on  the 
same  syllable  of  the  foot. 

Now  we  may  go  a  step  further.  An  iambus  is  the  com- 
mon foot  in  English  verse.  It  is  made  of  an  unaccented 
and  an  accented  syllable.  An  unaccented  syllable  at  the 
beginning  of  a  poem  seems  weak;  and  so  very  often  the 
first  foot  of  an  iambic  poem  is  a  trochee.  Moreover,  a 
trochee  is  sometimes  found  at  the  beginning  of  iambic 
lines  other  than  the  opening  line.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  line  this  irregularity  does  not  strike  one;  it  scarcely 
breaks  the  rhythm. 

13         1'  2  12  12 

I  Under  |  a  spread  jing  chest  [nut  tree  | 

12         12  1 

The  vil|lagesmith|y  stands.  | 


12  12  1  2 

I  He  hears  |  his  daughjter's  voice 


Singing  |  in  the  vil|lage  choir.  | 

But  there  are  times  when  some  sudden  change  of 
thought,  some  emotion,  forces  a  poet  to  break  the 
smooth  rhythm,  that  the  verses  may  harmonize  with  his 


328  VERSE  FORMS 

feeling.  The  following  is  taken  from  Annabel  Lee.  The 
regular  foot  has  the  accent  on  the  last  syllable.  But  note 
the  shudder  in  the  third  line  when  the  accent  is  changed 
on  the  word  "chilling."  The  music  and  the  thought  are 
in  perfect  harmony. 

And  this  was  the  reason  that,  long  ago. 
In  this  kingdom  by  the  sea, 

13  IS  1S8  IS 

I  A  wind  I  blew  out  |  of  a  cloud  |  chilling  | 
I  My  beau|tiful  An|nabel  Lee.  | 

Of  all  the  great  poets,  but  few  have  been  such  masters 
of  the  art  of  making  musical  verse  as  Spenser.  The  fol- 
lowing stanza  is  from  The  Faerie  Queene;  the  delicate 
changes  from  one  foot  to  another  are  so  skillfully  made 
that  one  has  to  look  twice  before  he  finds  them. 

A  little  lowly  hermitage  it  was, 

tsis  1  sist  s 

I  Down  in  |  a  dale,  |  hard  by  |  a  for  |  est's  side,  | 

Far  from  resort  of  people  that  did  pass 

In  travel  to  and  fro;  a  little  wide 

There  was  a  holy  chapel  edified. 

Wherein  a  hermit  duly  went  to  say 

His  holy  things  each  mom  and  eventide; 

Thereby  a  crystal  stream  did  gently  play. 

Which  from  a  sacred  fountain  welled  forth  alway. 

Extra  Syllables.  We  come  now  to  another  kind  of 
variation.  These  four  verses  are  from  an  old  English 
song,  and  they  run  very  smoothly;  yet  if  one  notices 
carefully,  one  will  find  an  extra  syllable  in  the  second 
and  fourth  lines. 

When  Christmas  comes  about  again 
I  O  then  I  I  shall  I  have  mon[ey];  | 

I'll  hoard  it  up,  and  box  it  all, 
I'll  give  it  to  my  honey. 


VERSE  FORMS  329 

So,  too,  in  these  lines  the  same  thing  is  found:  — 

Not  a  drum  was  heard,  not  a  funeral  note, 

I  As  his  corse  |  to  the  ram  [parts  we  hur[ried];  | 

Not  a  soldier  discharged  his  farewell  shot 
O'er  the  grave  where  our  hero  we  bur[ied]. 

Whenever  a  verse  is  iambic  or  anapestic,  there  may  he  an 
extra  unaccented  syllable  at  the  end  of  the  line. 

Omission  of  syllables.  Now  if  we  examine  the  fol- 
lowing, we  shall  find  quite  a  diflFerent  variation. 

1       s 

I  Sleep!  the  |  deer  is  |  in  his  |  den;  "1 1 
I  Sleep!  thy  |  hounds  are  |  by  thee  |  lying;  | 

I         2 

I  Sleep!  nor  |  dream  in  |  yonder  |  glen  •]  | 
I  How  thy  I  gallant  |  steed  lay  \  dying.  | 

I       J  s 

I  Home  from  the  |  Indies  and  [  home  from  the  |  ocean,  i  | 
I  Heroes  and  |  soldiers  we  |  all  shall  come  |  home ;  1 T  | 

1       S  3 

Still  we  shall  find  the  old  mill  wheel  in  |  motion,  1  | 

1  S    8 

Turning  and  churning  that  river  to  |  foam.  •!  "l  | 

In  both  these  stanzas  the  accent  is  on  the  first  syllable 
of  the  foot.  And  in  both,  unaccented  syllables  are 
omitted  from  the  last  foot  of  corresponding  lines.  In  the 
first,  written  in  trochees,  the  unaccented  syllable  is 
omitted  in  the  last  foot  of  the  first  and  third  lines.  In 
the  other  stanza,  written  in  dactyls,  one  unaccented 
syllable  is  left  off  in  the  first  and  third  lines,  making  the 
last  foot  a  trochee,  and  both  unaccented  syllables  are 
omitted  in  the  second  and  fourth  lines. 

Whenever  a  verse  is  trochaic  or  anapestic,  unaccented 
syllables  may  be  omitted  from  the  last  foot. 

Sometimes  unaccented  syllables  are  omitted  from 
other  feet  in  a  verse.  The  omission  of  unaccented  syl- 


8S0  VERSE  FORMS 

lables  at  the  beginning  or  end  of  lines  causes  no  inter- 
ruption in  the  onward  flow  of  the  verses,  but  the 
omission  of  unaccented  syllables  in  the  midst  of 
the  line  introduces  a  long  pause  between  the  feet  and 
renders  the  accented  syllables  very  emphatic.  This  is 
forcefully  illustrated  by  Tennyson*s  — 

1  s 

I  1  **  Br^k.  I  1  break,  |  i  break!  | 

I  On  thy  cold  |  grey  stones,  |  O  sea!  | 

I  And  I  would  |  that  my  tongue  ]  could  ut[ter]  | 

j  The  thoughts  |  that  arise  |  in  me."  | 

Determining  the  meter.  In  scanning,  then,  it  is 
necessary 

Firsty  to  determine,  by  reading  a  number  of  verses, 
the  kind  of  foot  that  predominates,  and  to  make  this 
the  basis  of  the  metrical  scheme. 

Second,  to  remember  that  one  kind  of  foot  may  be 
substituted  for  another,  at  the  will  of  the  poet,  introduc- 
ing into  the  poem  a  delicate  variety  of  rhythm  to  har- 
monize with  the  variety  of  emotion. 

Third,  to  keep  in  mind  that  unaccented  syllables  may 
be  omitted  from  a  foot,  especially  from  the  last  foot,  and 
that  an  extra  syllable  may  be  added  to  a  line. 

Kinds  of  poetry.  It  is  a  diflBcult  thing  to  give  a 
definition  of  poetry.  Many  have  done  so,  yet  no  one 
has  been  fortunate  enough  to  have  his  definition  go  with- 
out criticism.  In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  poetry 
deals  with  serious  subjects,  that  it  appeals  to  the  feelings 
more  than  to  the  reason,  that  it  employs  beautiful  lan- 
guage, and  that  it  is  written  in  some  metrical  form. 

Poetry  has  been  divided  into  three  great  classes :  nar- 
rative, lyric,  and  dramatic. 

(1)  Narrative  Poetry.    Narrative  poetry  deals  with 


VERSE  FORMS  331 

events,  real  or  imaginary.  It  includes,  among  other  va- 
rieties, the  epic,  the  metrical  romance,  the  tale,  and  the 
ballad. 

The  epic  is  a  narrative  poem  of  elevated  character,  generally 
telling  of  the  exploits  of  heroes. 

The  Iliad  of  the  Greeks,  the  Mneid  of  the  Romans,  the 
Nibelungenlied  of  the  Germans,  Beowulf  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  and  Paradise  Lost  are  good  examples  of  the  epic. 

The  metrical  romance  is  any  fictitious  narrative  of  heroic,  mar- 
velous, or  supernatural  incidents  derived  from  history  or  legend, 
and  told  at  considerable  length. 

The  Idylls  of  the  King  are  metrical  romances. 

The  tale  is  but  little  different  from  the  romance.  It 
leaves  the  field  of  legend  and  occupies  the  place  in 
poetry  that  a  story  or  a  novel  does  in  prose.  Mar- 
mion  and  Enoch  Arden  are  tales. 

A  ballad  is  a  short  narrative  poem,  generally  rehearsing  but  one 
incident. 

It  is  usually  vigorous  in  style,  grace  and  elegance  being 
minor  considerations.  Sir  Patrick  Spens,  The  Battle  of 
Otterburne,  and  Chevy  Chase  are  examples. 

(2)  Lyric  poetry.  Lyric  poetry  finds  its  source  in  the 
author's  feelings  and  emotions.  In  this  it  differs  from 
narrative  poetry,  which  finds  its  material  in  external 
events  and  circumstances.  Epic  poetry  is  written  in  a 
grand  style,  generally  in  pentameter  or  hexameter; 
while  the  lyric  adopts  any  verse  that  suits  the  emotion. 
The  principal  classes  of  lyric  poetry  are  the  song,  the 
ode,  the  elegy,  and  the  sonnet. 

The  song  is  a  short  poem  intended  to  be  sung. 

It  has  a  great  variety  of  meters  and  is  generally  divided 
into  stanzas.  Sweet  and  Low;  Ye  Banks  and  Braes  o' 
Bonnie  Doon;  John  Anderson,  My  Jo,  John,  are  songs. 


882  VERSE  FORMS 

An  ode  is  a  lyric  expressing  exalted  emotion;  it  usually  has  a 
complex  and  varied  metrical  form. 

Collins's   The  Passions,  Wordsworth's  Intimations  of 
Immortality,  and  Lowell's  Commemoration  Ode,  are  well 
known. 
An  elegy  is  a  serious  poem  pervaded  by  a  feeling  of  melancholy. 

It  is  generally  written  to  commemorate  the  death  of 
some  friend  or  hero.  Milton's  Lyddas  and  Gray's  Elegy 
in  a  Country  Churchyard  are  examples  of  this  form  of 
lyric.  Tennyson's  Ode  on  the  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Well- 
ington is  also  an  elegy. 

A  sonnet  is  a  lyric  that  deals  with  a  single  thought,  idea,  or 
sentiment  in  a  fixed  metrical  form.  The  sonnet  always  contains 
fourteen  lines. 

It  has,  too,  a  very  definite  rhyme  scheme.  Some  of  the 
best  English  sonnets  have  been  written  by  Shakespeare, 
Wordsworth,  and  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning. 

(3)  Dramatic  poetry.  Dramatic  poetry  presents  a 
course  of  human  events,  and  is  generally  designed  to  be 
spoken  on  the  stage.  Because  such  poetry  presents 
human  character  in  action,  the  term  "dramatic"  has 
come  to  be  applied  to  any  poetry  having  this  quality. 
Many  of  Browning's  poems  are  dramatic  in  this  sense. 
In  the  first  sense  of  the  word,  dramatic  poetry  includes 
comedy  and  tragedy. 

Tragedy  is  drama  in  which  the  diction  is  dignified,  the  move- 
ment impressive,  and  the  ending  unhappy. 

Comedy  is  drama  of  a  light  and  amusing  character,  with  a  happy 
conclusion  to  its  plot. 

EXERCISE 

Enough  of  each  poem  is  given  below  so  that  the  kind 
of  meter  can  be  determined.  For  each  quotation  name 
the  verse  form  and  write  the  verse  scheme.  Some  hard 


VERSE  FORMS  333 

work  will  be  necessary  to  work  out  the  irregular  lines, 
but  it  is  only  by  work  on  these  that  any  ability  in  scan- 
ning can  be  gained.  Always  read  a  stanza  two  or  three 
times  to  get  the  swing  of  the  rhythm.  Remember  the 
silences,  and  the  substitutions  that  may  be  made. 

1.  I  stood  on  the  bridge  at  midnight 

As  the  clocks  were  striking  the  hour. 
And  the  moon  rose  o'er  the  city. 
Behind  the  dark  church-tower. 

Among  the  long  black  rafters 

The  wavering  shadows  lay. 
And  the  current  that  came  from  the  ocean 

Seemed  to  lift  and  bear  them  away. 

2.  All  things  are  new;  —  the  buds,  the  leaves. 
That  gild  the  elm-tree's  nodding  crest. 
And  even  the  nest  beneath  the  eaves;  — 
There  are  no  birds  in  last  year's  nest! 

3.  Meanwhile  we  did  our  nightly  chores,  — 
Brought  in  the  wood  from  out  of  doors. 
Littered  the  stalls,  and  from  the  mows 
Raked  down  the  herd's-grass  for  the  cows; 
Heard  the  horse  whinnying  for  his  corn; 
And,  sharply  clashing  horn  on  horn. 
Impatient  down  the  stanchion  rows 

The  cattle  shake  their  walnut  bows; 
While,  peering  from  his  early  perch 
Upon  the  scaffold's  pole  of  birch. 
The  cock  his  crested  helmet  bent 
And  down  his  querulous  challenge  sent. 

4.  You  know,  we  French  stormed  Ratisbon: 

A  mile  or  so  away. 
On  a  little  mound.  Napoleon 

Stood  on  our  storming  day; 
With  neck  out-thrust,  you  fancy  how. 

Legs  wide,  arms  locked  behind. 


S84  VERSE  FORMS 

As  if  to  balance  the  prone  brow 
Oppressive  with  its  mind. 

5.  Come,  read  to  me  some  poem. 

Some  simple  and  heartfelt  lay. 
That  shall  soothe  this  restless  feeling. 
And  banish  the  thoughts  of  day. 

6.  Hickory,  dickory,  dock. 
The  mouse  ran  up  the  clock; 
The  clock  struck  one. 

And  the  mouse  ran  down; 
Hickory,  dickory,  dock. 

7.  Two  brothers  had  the  maiden,  and  she  thought. 
Within  herself:  "I  would  I  were  like  them; 
For  then  I  might  go  forth  alone,  to  trace 

The  mighty  rivers  downward  to  the  sea. 
And  upward  to  the  brooks  that,  through  the  year. 
Prattle  to  the  cool  valleys.  I  would  know 
What  races  drink  their  waters;  how  their  chiefs 
Bear  rule,  and  how  men  worship  there,  and  how 
They  build,  and  to  what  quaint  device  they  frame. 
Where  sea  and  river  meet,  their  stately  ships; 
What  flowers  are  in  their  gardens,  and  what  trees 
Bear  fruit  within  their  orchards;  in  what  garb 
Their  bowmen  meet  on  holidays,  and  how 
Their  maidens  bind  the  waist  and  braid  the  hair." 

8.  A  wet  sheet  and  a  flowing  sea, 
A  wind  that  follows  fast 
And  fills  the  rustling  sails 
And  bends  the  gallant  mast; 

And  bends  the  gallant  mast,  my  boys. 
While  like  the  eagle  free 
Away  the  good  ship  flies,  and  leaves 
Old  England  on  the  lee. 

0  for  a  soft  and  gentle  wind; 

1  heard  a  fair  one  cry; 

But  give  to  me  the  snoring  breeze 
And  white  waves  heaving  high; 


VERSE  FORMS  SS5 

And  white  waves  heaving  high,  my  lads. 
The  good  ship  tight  and  free  — 
The  world  of  waters  is  our  home. 
And  merry  men  are  we. 

There 's  tempest  in  yon  horned  moon. 
And  lightning  in  yon  cloud; 
But  hark  the  music,  mariners! 
The  wind  is  piping  loud; 
The  wind  is  piping  loud,  my  boys. 
The  lightning  flashes  free  — 
While  the  hollow  oak  our  palace  is. 
Our  heritage  the  sea. 

9.  Once  upon  a  midnight  dreary,  while  I  pondered,  weak  and 
weary. 
Over  many  a  quaint  and  curious  volume  of  forgotten  lore. 
While  I  nodded,  nearly  napping,  suddenly  there  came  a  tap- 
ping. 
As  of  some  one  gently  rapping,  rapping  at  my  chamber  door  — 
"'Tis  some  visitor,"  I  muttered,  "tapping  at  my  chamber 

door  — 
Only  this,  and  nothing  more." 

10.  Somewhat  back  from  the  village  street 
Stands  the  old-fashioned  country-seat. 
Across  its  antique  portico 

Tall  poplar-trees  their  shadows  throw; 
And  from  its  station  in  the  hall 
An  ancient  timepiece  says  to  all,  — 
"Forever  —  never! 
Never  —  forever." 

11.  Listen,  my  children,  and  you  shall  hear 
Of  the  midnight  ride  of  Paul  Revere, 

On  the  eighteenth  of  April,  in  Seventy-five; 

Hardly  a  man  is  now  alive 

Who  remembers  that  famous  day  and  year. 

12.  Sweet  and  low,  sweet  and  low. 
Wind  of  the  western  sea. 


336  VERSE  FORMS 

Low,  low,  breathe  and  blow. 

Wind  of  the  western  sea! 

Over  the  rolling  waters  go. 

Come  from  the  dying  moon,  and  blow. 

Blow  him  again  to  me; 

While  my  little  one,  while  my  pretty  one,  sleeps. 

IS.  See  what  a  lovely  shell. 

Small  and  pure  as  a  pearl. 
Lying  close  to  my  foot. 
Frail,  but  a  work  divine. 
Made  so  fairily  well 
With  delicate  spire  and  whorl. 
How  exquisitely  minute, 
A  miracle  of  design! 

Note.  If  the  pupils  have  Palgrave's  Golden  Treasury  of  Songs 
and  Lyrics,  they  have  a  great  fund  of  excellent  material  illustrat- 
ing all  varieties  of  metrical  variation.  There  are  very  few  single 
poems  that  illustrate  so  many  varieties  of  meter  as  Wordsworth's 
Intimations  of  Immortality. 


APPENDIX 

THE  FORM  OF  A  COMPOSITION 

The  Margin.  It  is  the  custom  to  leave  a  margin  of  about 
one  inch  at  the  left  side  of  the  page.  In  this  margin,  not  in  the 
composition,  all  corrections  should  be  written.  There  should 
be  no  margin  at  the  right. 

Indention.  To  designate  the  beginning  of  a  paragraph,  it  is 
customary  to  have  the  first  line  start  an  inch  farther  in  than 
the  other  lines.  This  indention  of  the  margin  at  the  beginning 
and  the  incomplete  line  at  the  end  mark  the  visible  limits  of  a 
paragraph. 

The  Heading.  The  heading,  or  title,  of  a  composition 
should  be  written  about  an  inch  and  a  half  from  the  top  of  the 
page,  and  well  placed  in  the  middle  from  left  to  right.  There 
should  be  a  blank  line  between  the  title  and  the  beginning  of 
the  composition.  Some  teachers  prefer  to  see  also  on  the  first 
page  the  name  of  the  writer  and  the  date  of  writing;  in  this 
case,  the  name  may  be  at  the  left  and  the  date  at  the  right, 
both  on  one  line,  and  above  the  title. 

\}{\JLr\L>  CXxUUxL  OU  XAMn/OiAxL,  OyTI/cL  \AMU>  iA/V-ixL  VTU 
OU     OAAXJit     QU/XMj     V^liy     thjL>     ^lAXJU     O/VuL     IXXAAAxL 


338  APPENDIX 

The  Indorsement.  When  the  composition  is  finished,  it 
should  be  folded  but  once  up  and  down  the  middle  of  the 
pages.  Then  it  should  be  indorsed  upon  the  back,  well  up 
toward  the  top,  and  at  the  left  of  the  crease.  The  indorsement 
may  well  contain:  first,  the  name  of  the  writer;  second,  the 
term  of  work  and  the  period  of  the  recitation;  third,  the  title 
of  the  essay;  and  fourth,  the  date.  The  number  of  the  term 
may  be  indicated  by  a  Roman  numeral,  and  the  period  of  reci- 
tation by  an  Arabic  numeral. 


n,  3 

3<xm..  J2n,   icjl  I. 

MARKS  FOR  THE  CORRECTION  OF 
COMPOSITIONS 

In  correcting  compositions  certain  abbreviations  will  save 
the  teacher  much  time.  Underscore  the  element  that  needs 
correction,  and  put  the  abbreviation  in  the  margin.  In  case 
the  whole  paragraph  needs  remodeling,  draw  a  line  at  its  side 
and  note  the  correction  in  the  margin. 

In  addition  to  these  very  common  corrections,  many  others 
will  have  to  be  made.  Instead  of  abbreviations,  it  will  be  bet- 
ter to  refer  the  pupil  to  the  page  of  the  text  that  treats  of  the 
special  fault.  For  instance,  if  there  is  an  unexpected  change  of 
construction,  underscore  it,  and  write  in  the  margin  **^5  "  (on 
this  page  is  found  a  treatment  of  the  subject  of  "parallel  con- 
struction"). The  constant  reference  to  the  fuller  statement  of 
the  principle  violated  will  serve  to  fix  it  in  mind. 
Cap.     Use  a  capital  letter. 

1.  c.      Use  a  small  letter  (the  printer's  term  for  the  small  let- 
ters is  "lower  case"). 


APPENDIX  339 

D.        See  the  dictionary  for  the  correct  use  of  the  word. 

Sp.       Spelling. 

Gr.       A  mistake  in  the  grammatical  use  of  language. 

Cnst.  The  construction  of  the  sentence  is  awkward  or  not 
idiomatic. 

CI.  Not  clear.  The  remedy  may  be  suggested  by  reference 
to  certain  pages  of  the  text. 

W,  Weak.  As  above,  point  out  the  trouble  by  a  page  refer- 
ence. 

Rep.  Repetition  is  monotonous;  or  on  the  other  hand,  it  may 
be  needed  for  clearness. 

P.         Punctuation. 

Cond.  Condense. 

Exp.     Expand. 

Tr.       Transpose. 

?  Some  fault  not  designated.    It  is  well  to  use  a  page 

reference. 

^         Make  a  new  paragraph. 

N    If   Unite  into  one  paragraph. 

dt  Cut  out. 

A        There  is  something  omitted. 


SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS  ON   SELECTED 
CLASSICS 

The  questions  are  only  suggestive.  They  indicate  how 
literature  can  be  made  to  teach  composition.  Some  questions 
may  seem  hard,  and  will  provoke  discussion.  To  have  even 
a  false  opinion,  backed  by  only  a  few  facts,  is  better  than 
an  entire  absence  of  thought.  Encourage  discussion.  The 
answers  to  the  questions  have  not  been  suggested  in  the  ques- 
tions themselves.  The  object  has  been  to  throw  the  pupil  upon 
his  own  thinking. 

These  questions  upon  the  method  of  the  author  should  not 
be  considered  until  the  far  more  important  work  of  deriving 
the  meaning  of  the  author  has  been  finished.  Only  after  the 
whole  piece  has  been  carefully  studied  can  the  relation  of  the 
parts  to  the  whole  be  understood.  Reserve  the  questions 
for  the  review. 

A   CHRISTMAS   CAROL 

(Riverside  Literature  Series,  No.  57.) 

Is  the  opening  such  as  to  catch  the  attention? 

What  is  the  essential  idea  in  the  description  of  Scrooge?  Do 
all  details  enforce  this  idea?  Do  you  know  Scrooge? 

In  what  paragraph  does  Dickens  tell  where  the  story  occurs? 

Find  places  on  p.  19  and  p.  96  where  Dickens  has  used  "in" 
for  "into." 

What  advantage  to  the  story  is  the  appearance  in  Scrooge's 
oflSce  of  his  nephew  and  the  two  gentlemen?  Do  they  come  into 
the  story  again? 

Are  the  details  in  the  description  of  the  apparition  on  p.  41 
in  the  order  in  which  they  would  be  noted?  Which  is  the  most 
important  detail?  Where  is  it  in  the  description? 

Is  the  description  of  Mrs.  Fezziwig  on  p.  52  successful? 

What  helps  express  rapidity  of  movement  in  the  paragraph 
at  the  bottom  of  p.  53?  (See  also  paragraph  on  p.  85.) 


QUESTIONS  ON  SELECTED  CLASSICS        341 

Examining  the  words  used  by  Dickens  and  Hawthorne, 
which  are  longer?  Which  are  most  effectual?  Are  you  sure  ? 
Rewrite  one  of  Hawthorne's  paragraphs  with  a  Dickens 
vocabulary.  What  is  the  result? 

What  word  is  the  topic  of  the  last  paragraph  on  p.  73? 

Recast  the  first  sentence  of  the  last  paragraph  on  p.  77. 

Does  Dickens  use  slang?  (Do  not  consider  conversation  in 
the  answer,  to  this  question.) 

What  is  the  main  incident?  Is  there  one  of  the  minor  inci- 
dents that  could  be  omitted? 

Which  one  could  you  most  easily  spare? 

What  is  the  need  of  the  last  chapter? 


MARMION 

(Rolfe's  Student's  Series,  Vol.  2.) 

How  do  you  know  the  time  of  Marmion  ? 

Do  you  see  any  reason  why  stanza  vi  of  Canto  I  might  better 
precede  stanza  v? 

Where  is  the  first  mention  of  De  Wilton?  the  first  intimation 
of  Clara  de  Clare?  of  Constance? 

What  form  of  discourse  in  stanza  vii  of  Canto  II? 

What  part  in  the  development  of  the  narrative  does  Fitz- 
Eustace's  song  make? 

Does  the  tale  related  by  the  host  break  the  unity  of  the 
whole?  Is  it  "another  story"?  What  value  has  it? 

Why  does  Scott  not  tell  of  Marmion's  encounter  with  the 
Elfin  Knight  in  Canto  III?  Where  is  it  told?  Why  there? 

Why  is  Canto  II  put  after  Canto  I?  Did  the  events  related 
in  II  occur  after  those  related  in  I? 

How  many  of  the  descriptions  of  persons  in  Marmion 
begin  with  the  face?  How  many  times  are  they  of  the  face 
only? 

Try  to  write  the  incident  related  in  stanzas  xix,  xx,  xxi, 
and  XXII  of  Canto  III  in  fewer  words  than  Scott  has  done  it 
without  sacrificing  any  detail. 

Are  you  satisfied  with  the  description  of  King  James  in 
stanza  viii  Canto  V?  Do  you  see  him? 

Write  an  outline  of  the  plot  of  Marmion  in  two  hundred 
words. 


842       QUESTIONS  ON  SELECTED  CLASSICS 

Why  is  the  story  of  Lady  Clare  reserved  until  Canto  V? 

What  cantos  contain  the  main  incident? 

Were  all  that  precedes  omitted,  would  "The  Battle"  be 
as  interesting? 

Do  you  think  the  plot  good?  Is  it  complicated? 

What  of  the  number  of  figures  used  in  the  last  canto  com- 
pared with  those  used  in  any  other  canto?  Do  you  find  more 
in  narrative  or  descriptive  passages?  Why? 

Read  stanza  viii  Canto  III.  Can  you  describe  a  voice  with- 
out using  comparison? 

Do  the  introductions  to  the  several  cantos  form  any  part  of 
the  story?  Would  they  be  just  as  good  anywhere  else?  Would 
the  story  be  better  with  them,  or  without  them?  What  prin- 
ciple of  structure  do  they  violate? 

THE   OLD   MANSE 
(Riverside  Literature  Series,  No.  69.) 

Are  there  narrative  portions  in  the  Old  Manse?  para- 
graphs of  exposition? 

Do  you  term  the  whole  narration,  description,  or  exposi- 
tion? Why? 

Frame  a  sentence  which  you  think  would  be  an  adequate 
topic  sentence  for  the  whole  piece. 

What  phrase  in  the  first  paragraph  allows  the  author  to 
begin  the  second  with  the  words,"  Nor,  in  truth,  had  the  Old 
Manse,"  etc.?  Where  in  the  second  paragraph  is  found  the 
words  which  are  the  source  of  "my  design,"  mentioned  in  the 
third?  How  does  the  author  pass  from  the  fourth  paragraph 
to  the  fifth?  In  the  same  way  note  the  connections  between 
the  succeeding  paragraphs.  They  are  most  skillfully  dove- 
tailed together.  Now  make  a  list  of  the  phrases  in  the  first 
fifteen  pages  which  introduce  paragraphs,  telling  from  what 
in  the  preceding  paragraph  each  new  paragraph  springs.  Do 
you  think  that  such  a  felicitous  result  just  happened?  or  did 
Hawthorne  plan  it? 

In  the  paragraph  beginning  at  the  bottom  of  p.  18,  what 
have  guided  in  the  inclusion  and  exclusion  of  details? 

Make  a  list  of  the  words  used  to  describe  "the  Old  Apple 
Dealer." 

Has  this  description  Unity? 


QUESTIONS  ON  SELECTED  CLASSICS       343 

What  relation  to  the  whole  has  the  first  sentence  of  para- 
graph three?  the  last? 

Do  you  think  there  is  a  grammatical  error  in  the  third  sen- 
tence of  this  paragraph? 

By  contrasts  to  what  has  Hawthorne  brought  out  better  the 
character  of  the  Apple  Dealer?  When  can  contrasts  help? 

AN   INDIAN-SUMMER   REVERIE,   AND   OTHER   POEMS 

(Riverside  Literature  Series,  No.  30.) 

In  this  poem  what  purpose  is  served  by  the  first  two  stanzas? 

Where  in  the  landscape  does  the  author  begin?  Which  way 
does  he  progress? 

Quote  stanzas  in  which  other  senses  than  sight  are  called 
upon. 

Make  a  list  of  the  figures  of  speech.  How  many  similes? 
metaphors?  examples  of  personification?  Which  seems  most 
effective?  Which  instance  of  its  use  do  you  prefer?  Has 
Lowell  used  too  many  figures? 

Read  The  Oak  and  Al  Fresco. 

Are  they  description  or  exposition?  Do  they  bear  out 
Lowell's  estimate  of  himself? 

THE  SKETCH  BOOK 

(Riverside  Literature  Series,  Nos.  51,  52.) 

Why  has  Irving  given  four  pages  to  the  description  of 
Sleepy  Hollow  before  he  introduces  Ichabod  Crane? 

Wliy,  then,  seven  pages  to  Ichabod  before  the  story  begins? 

What  gives  the  peculiar  interest  to  this  tale? 

In  the  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow  how  many  paragraphs  of 
description  close  with  an  important  detail? 

How  many  with  a  general  characterization? 

In  all  the  descriptions  of  buildings  by  Irving  that  you  have 
read,  what  are  the  first  things  mentioned,  —  size,  shape,  color, 
or  what?  Make  a  list,  so  as  to  be  sure. 

Does  Irving  use  many  comparisons?  Are  the  likenesses  to 
common  things?  Select  the  ten  you  think  best.  Are  there 
more  in  narrative  or  descriptive  passages?  What  do  you 
gather  from  this  fact? 

In  Christmas  Day  on  p.  51  (R.  L.  S.,  No.  52),  does  Irving 


•>^ 


344       QUESTIONS  ON  SELECTED  CLASSICS 

proceed  from  far  to  near  in  the  landscape?  Is  this  common? 
Find  another  example. 

How  has  Irving  emphasized  the  littleness  of  the  minister 
described  on  p.  56  (R.  L.  S.,  No.  52)? 

THE   FALL   OF   THE   HOUSE   OF   USHER 

(Riverside  Literature  Series,  No.  119.) 

Is  the  arrangement  of  the  details  in  the  last  two  lines  of  the 
first  paragraph  stronger  than  the  arrangement  of  the  same 
details  on  p.  63?  Why,  or  why  not? 

In  the  description  of  the  hall,  pp.  67  and  68,  do  the  details 
produce  the  eflFect  upon  you  which  they  did  upon  Poe? 

Find  a  description  in  this  piece  which  closes  with  an  impor- 
tant detail. 

Is  Usher  described  at  all  when  Poe  says,  "I  gazed  upon  him 
with  a  feeling  half  of  pity,  half  of  awe"?  Do  the  details 
enumerated  arouse  such  feelings  in  you?  Would  the  feeling 
have  been  called  forth  if  it  had  not  been  suggested  by  Poe?  Is 
there,  then,  any  advantage  in  this  method  of  opening  a 
description? 

What  good  was  done  by  describing  Usher  as  Poe  knew  him 
in  youth? 

Why  is  the  parenthetical  clause  on  p.  72  necessary? 

On  p.  80,  should  Poe  write  "previously  to  its  final  inter- 
ment"? 

What  do  you  think  of  the  length  of  the  sentence  quoted  on 
p.  85? 

Does  Poe  use  description  to  accent  the  mood  of  the  narra- 
tive, or  to  make  concrete  the  places  and  persons? 

Why  is  "the  Haunted  Palace"  introduced  into  the  story? 

ESSAY   ON  MILTON 
(Riverside  Literature  Series,  No.  103.) 

What  makes  up  the  introduction?  Does  Macaulay  use  the 
same  method  in  the  essay  on  Addison?  Take  a  volume  of  his 
essays  and  see  how  many  begin  in  similar  fashion.  At  what 
paragraph  of  this  essay  on  Milton  does  the  introduction  end? 
Would  it  be  as  well  to  omit  it?   Give  reasons  for  your  opinion. 

Make  an  analysis  of  his  argument  of  the  proposition,  "No 
poet  has  ever  triumphed  over  greater  difficulties  than  Milton." 


QUESTIONS  ON  SELECTED  CLASSICS       345 

Does  Macaulay  give  a  definition  of  poetry  on  page  13,  or  is  it 
an  exposition  of  the  term? 

What  figure  of  speech  do  you  find  in  the  last  sentence  of  the 
paragraph  on  page  43? 

When  Macaulay  begins  to  discuss  "the  public  conduct  of 
Milton,"  what  method  of  introduction  does  he  adopt?  What 
value  is  there  in  it? 

Do  the  trifles  mentioned  at  the  end  of  the  paragraph  on 
page  55  make  an  anticlimax? 

What  construction  is  used  throughout  most  of  this  para- 
graph? What  is  its  value  here? 

Does  he  close  his  paragraphs  with  a  repetition  of  the  topic 
more  often  than  with  a  single  detail  emphasizing  the  topic  ? 

In  general,  how  does  Macaulay  mass  ideas  within  the  sen- 
tence— are  the  more  important  ones  at  the  beginning  or  at  the 
end?  What  use  does  he  make  of  short  sentences?  Find  exam- 
ples of  balanced  structure;  of  sentence  variety. 

Does  Macaulay  frequently  use  epithets?  antitheses? 

Find  all  transition  paragraphs. 

Find  ten  full  sentence  transitions  outside  of  the  transition 
paragraphs.    Where,  in  such  paragraphs,  is  the  topic  sentence? 

Is  his  treatment  of  the  subject  concrete? 

What  advantage  is  there  in  such  treatment? 

OF  kings'  treasuries 

(Riverside  Literature  Series,  No.  142.) 

Do  you  think  the  title  good? 

Is  Ruskin  wise  in  disclosing  his  subject  at  once? 

In  section  3  what  purpose  does  the  first  paragraph  fulfill? 
What  method  of  exposition  is  adopted  in  the  last  paragraph? 
What  method  in  section  4? 

For  what  purpose  is  the  first  paragraph  of  section  5  intro- 
duced? Is  the  last  paragraph  of  this  section  a  digression? 

Do  you  think  the  last  sentence  of  section  9  upon  the  topic 
announced  in  the  first  sentence?  Where  does  Ruskin  begin  to 
treat  the  second  topic?  Should  there  be  two  paragraphs? 

Granting  that  both  Ruskin  and  Macaulay  are  emphatic, 
what  is  the  difference  in  their  manner  of  expression  —  for 
example,  in  choice  of  words?  in  sentence  structure?  in  use  of 
figures?  in  paragraph  arrangement? 


346       QUESTIONS  ON  SELECTED  CLASSICS 

What  figure  do  you  find  in  section  14?  in  26? 

Could  you  break  up  the  sixth  sentence  of  section  31  so  that 
it  would  be  better? 

What  do  you  think  of  the  structure  of  sentences  4  and  8  in 
section  32?  Could  you  improve  it  by  a  change  of  punctuation? 

What  is  the  effect  of  the  supposed  case  at  the  end  of  section 
33?  Is  it  a  fair  deduction?  Is  it  at  the  right  place  in  the  para- 
graph, and  why? 

Is  the  example  in  36  a  fair  one,  and  does  it  prove  the  case? 

Where  would  you  divide  the  paragraph  in  section  37? 

What  is  a  very  common  method  with  Ruskin  of  connecting 
paragraphs? 

If  his  audience  had  been  hostile  to  him,  would  he  have  been 
fortunate  in  some  of  his  assertions?  Make  an  analysis  of  the 
whole  essay.  Does  he  seem  to  you  to  have  digressed  from  his 
topic?  At  what  point?  Should  it  be  two  essays? 

What  led  Ruskin  into  this  criticism  of  English  character? 

Could  you  include  all  the  main  topics  and  by  a  change  in 
proportion  keep  the  essay  on  the  subject? 

ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES 

(Riverside  Literature  Series,  No.  100.) 

What  argument  does  Burke  use  to  prove  that  hedging  in  the 
population  is  not  practicable? 

"Americans  speak  the  English  language,  therefore  they  are 
English."  Is  the  argument  good?  Where  is  the  fault? 

How  does  he  prove  that  criminal  procedure  against  the  colo- 
nies would  fail? 

Do  the  four  precedents  of  Ireland,  Wales,  Durham,  and 
Chester  prove  that  his  plan  will  work  in  America? 

Is  paragraph  79  in  itself  exposition  or  argument? 

What  method  is  adopted  in  paragraph  88  to  prove  that  the 
principle  of  concession  is  applicable  to  America? 

How  does  he  prove  that  Americans  were  aggrieved  by  taxes? 
How  does  he  establish  the  competence  of  their  assemblies? 

How  could  the  arguments  have  made  "the  conclusion  irre- 
sistible"?  (Paragraph  112.) 

What  principle  of  argument  is  stated  in  paragraph  114? 

What  parts  of  the  brief  are  direct  argument?  WTiat  are 
refutation?  Is  there  climax  in  the  arrangement  of  the  whole? 


INDEX 


Abbreviations,  in  superscriptiona,  200, 
201 ;  in  correcting  compositions,  338, 
339. 

Abstract  ideas,  in  exposition,  202-204, 
218,  219. 

Accent  in  verse,  320-323. 

Action,  time  of,  in  narrative,  98. 

Address  of  letters,  163,  164,  191. 

Adjective  clauses,  36. 

Adjectives,  rules  for  use  of,  26,  27;  as 
descriptive  words,  155. 

Admitted  matter,  in  argument,  281- 
283. 

Adverbial  clauses,  37. 

Adverbs,  rules  for  use  of,  26,  27;  set  off 
by  commas,  36. 

Agreement  of  verb,  11-16. 

Ain't,  18. 

Aldricb,  T.  B.,  plots  of,  66,  67,  70,  83. 

Allegory,  313. 

Allusion,  314. 

Amphibrach,  322,  323. 

Anapest,  322,  326. 

And,  ungrammatical  use  of,  31;  un- 
rhetorical  use  of,  255. 

Andersen,  Hans  Christian,  quoted,  146. 

Annabel  Lee,  quoted,  328. 

Any,  any  one,  agreement  of  verb  with, 
14. 

Apostrophe,  incorrect  use  of,  as  pos- 
sessive sign,  17;  figure  of,  313. 

Appear,  adjective  to  be  used  with,  26. 

Appositives,  punctuation  of,  36. 

Argumentation,  defined,  55,  56,  271; 
treated,  271-308;  the  proposition, 
275-278:  the  brief,  278-301;  the 
presentation,  301-303;  principles  of 
structure,  303-306. 

Arrangement,  in  narration,  64-67,  71, 
72,  87-90;  in  description,  125-142; 
in  exposition,  227-237,  249,  250;  in 
argumentation,  289-292,  297,  303. 

As,  incorrect  use  of,  30;  punctuation 
preceding,  44. 

Association  of  ideas,  223-225. 

Balanced  sentences,  259,  260. 
Ballad,  the,  331. 
Barbarisms,  11. 
Barnaby  Rudge,  quoted,  108. 


Beauty,  by  use  of  figurative  language. 
310. 

Beginning,  of  story,  75-77,  88;  of  de- 
scription, 125-132;  of  paragraph, 
237,  238;  of  essay,  241-246. 

Benson,  A.  G.,  quoted,  243. 

Black  Arrow,  The,  quoted,  101. 

Blackmore,  R.  D.,  quoted,  131. 

Bleak  House,  number  of  characters  in, 
98. 

Body,  of  letter,  165;  of  composition, 
90,  91,  93,  233. 

Bridge  of  Sighs,  The,  quoted,  321. 

Brief,  in  exposition,  230-232,  239-241; 
in  argumentation,  272,  278-301. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  quoted,  190. 

Brown,  Dr.  John,  quoted,  127. 

Browning,  Robert,  An  Incident  of  the 
French  Camp,  quoted,  77,  78;  How 
They  Brought  the  Good  News  from 
Ghent  to  Aix,  321. 

Bryant,  W.  C,  quoted,  117. 

Bunyan,  John,  313. 

Burke,  Edmund,  quoted  to  illustrate, 
paragraph  structure,  238;  use  of 
pronouns,  252,  253;  use  of  parallel 
constructions,  258,  259;  beginning  of 
refutation,  296;  use  of  summaries  and 
transitions,  264,  265;  procedure  of 
brief,  291,  292. 

Burroughs,  John,  quoted,  143. 

But,  use  of,  255. 

But  what,  incorrect  use  of,  31. 

Cable,  George  W.,  quoted,  143. 

Can,  use  of,  21. 

Capital  letters,  uses  of,  6,  51,  164. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted,  134. 

Cause  and  effect,  controlling  sequence 
in  narration,  65;  inverted  order  of,  in 
narration,  82,  83,  88. 

Characters,  number  of,  98. 

Chatham,  William,  quoted,  296. 

Choice  of  words,  101-103,  155-157. 

Christmas  Carol,  quoted,  83. 

Clash  of  opinion,  283-285. 

Clauses,  punctuation  of,  36,  37;  re- 
strictive and  descriptive,  36. 

Clearness,  by  use  of  figurative  lan- 
guage, 151-153,  310. 


848 


INDEX 


Climax,  position  of,  76,  132;  depend- 
ent upon  contrast,  96;  in  the  thought, 
97;  examples  of,  134-136;  in  argu- 
mentation, 303,  304;  defined,  315. 

Coherence,  in  narration,  71-73;  in  ex- 
position, 248-265;  in  argumentation, 
304,  305. 

Collective  nouns,  agreement  of  verb 
with,  12,  13. 

Colon.   See  Punctuation. 

Comedy,  332. 

Comma.   See  Punctuation. 

Comparative  degree,  27. 

Comparisons,  paragraph  of,  149-151; 
in  description,  150-152;  in  exposi- 
tion, 208-210;  confusion  of,  311. 

Complex  sentences,  10. 

Complimentary  close,  165,  191. 

Composition,  defined,  1,  67;  rules  of, 
2-32;  two  groups  of,  55,  56;  five  great 
classes  of,  56,  57;  principles  of  struc- 
ture of,  68;  form  of  a,  337,  338;  marks 
for  correction  of,  338.  339. 

Compound  sentences,  8-10. 

Conciliation  with  the  Colonies,  quoted, 
238,  252,  253,  258,  259,  264,  265, 
296;  brief  for,  291,  292. 

Conclusion,  of  composition,  91,  92,  93, 
233;  of  brief,  299-301. 

Concrete  facts,  use  of,  202-204. 

Conjunctions,  in«orrect  uses  of,  30-32; 
coherence  by  use  of,  253-255,  304. 

Connectives,  coherence  by  use  of,  252- 
265. 

Consistency,  85,  89. 

Contrasts,  description  by,  147. 

Conversation,  punctuation  of,  40,  41; 
arrangement  of,  49. 

Cooper,  Frederic  Taber,  quoted,  144. 

Correction  of  composition,  marks  for, 
338,  339. 

Correspondence.  See  Letters. 

Covld,  correct  use  of,  21. 

Courtship  of  Miles  Standish,  The,  meter 
of,  324,  325. 

Curtis,  George  William,  quoted,  147. 
251,  256. 

Dactyl,   defined,  322;  interchangeable 

with  trochee,  326,  327. 
Dash.   See  Punctuation. 
David  Copper  field,  quoted,  126. 
Davis,  Richard  Harding,  quoted,  58, 

133;  plot  in  Gallegher  by,  93. 
Death  of  the  Flowers,  The,  quoted,  325. 
Definition  of  terms,  244,  245,  280. 
Defoe,  Daniel,  plot  of  Robinson  Crusoe 

by,  67. 
Description,  defined,  65,  66,  62,  105; 


treated,  105-161;  and  painting,  105- 

107,  117,  118;  enumerative  and  sug- 
gestive, 108-115;  accurate  observa- 
tion and,  112;  selection  and  point  of 
view  in,  115-125;  arrangement  in, 
125-142;  paragraphs  in,  142-151; 
use  of  comparisons  in,  151;  choice  of 
words  in,  155-157. 

Details,  in  narration,  81-84;  in  descrip- 
tion, 117-140;  paragraph  of,  145, 
146;  in  exposition,  205-207. 

Dickens,  Charles,  intricate  plot  by,  67; 
inclusion  of  detail  by,  83;  as  story 
teller  in  third  person,  85;  number  of 
characters  introduced  by,  98;  quoted, 

108,  117,  126,  127,  132,  133,  143, 
155,  326. 

Digressions,  82,  303. 

Dimeter,  323. 

Direct  proof,  289-294. 

Discourse,  forms  of,  55-57. 

Don't,  incorrect  use  of,  18. 

Doyle,  Conan,  quoted,  110,  129,  134, 

140. 
Dramatic  poetry,  332. 
Dramatists,  89. 

Each,  agreement  of  verb  with,  14. 

Either,  agreement  of  verb  with,  14; 
with  or,  30. 

Elegy,  the,  332. 

Eliot,  George,  plots  of,  66,  67;  time 
covered  in  Silas  Mamer  by,  99; 
quoted,  144,  215. 

Emphasis  in  description,  136,  137. 

End,  of  story,  75-77;  of  sentence  or 
paragraph,  76,  237,  238;  of  descrip- 
tion, 132-136;  of  essay,  246,  247. 

English  Composition.  See  Composition. 

Enumerative  and  suggestive  descrip- 
tion, 108-115,  146. 

Epic,  the,  331. 

Epithet,  312. 

Esquire,  use  of,  164. 

Essay,  outline  of  an,  227-234;  para- 
graphs in,  234-237;  mass  in,  241- 
248;  coherence  in,  263-265. 

Evangeline,  scansion  of,  327. 

Events,  order  of,  in  narration,  64-66, 
87-95. 

Everett,  Edward,  quoted,  135;  use  of 
descriptive  words  by,  155. 

Every  one,  agreement  of  verb  with,  14. 

Ewing,  Mrs.  J.  H.,  quoted,  57,  58; 
plot  of  Jackanapes  by,  83;  as  story- 
teller in  the  third  person,  85. 

Exclamation  mark.  See  Punctuation. 

Explanation,  methods  of,  204-217. 

Exposition,  defined,  55.  56,  202,  204; 


INDEX 


349 


treated,  202-270;  difficulties  of,  203, 
204;  methods  of  explaining,  204-217; 
subject,  theme,  and  title  in,  217- 
222;  selection  of  material  in,  222- 
227;  arrangement  of  material  in, 
227-237;  paragraphs  in,  234-237; 
mass  in,  231,  237-248;  coherence  in, 
248-265. 
Extra  syllables  in  verse,  328,  329. 

Facts,  concrete,  use  of,  202-204. 

Faerie  Queene,  The,  an  allegory,  313; 
quoted,  328. 

Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher,  The,  quoted, 
102,  128;  proportion  in,  136. 

Feel,  adjective  to  be  used  with,  26. 

Feet  in  verse,  kinds  of,  321-323;  de- 
fined, 322;  combinations  of,  323; 
substitutions  of,  326-328. 

Figurative  language,  153,  309-311.  See 
also  Imagery. 

Figures  of  speech,  151-153,  309-319? 

Folding  of  letters,  198,  199. 

For,  use  of,  in  briefs,  292. 

Force,  by  use  of  figurative  language, 
151-153,  310. 

Form  of  a  composition,  337,  338. 

Forms  of  discourse.   See  Discourse. 

Frederic,  Harold,  quoted,  69. 

Gallegher,  simple  plot  of,  99. 
General  terms,  202-204,  218,  219. 
Giberne,  Agnes,  quoted,  211. 
Oold  Bug,  The,  length  of  sentences  in, 

97. 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  quoted,  58,  59. 
Qoliath,  plot  of,  67. 
Grammatical  errors,  rules  for  avoiding, 

11-32. 
Great  Stone  Face,  The,  99. 

Hale,  E.  E.,  plot  of  The  Man  Without 

a  Country  by,  67. 
Hardy,  Thomas,  quoted,  140. 
Hare,  Augustus,  quoted,  109. 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  106,  107,  116, 

119,   120,   122,   137;    point    of  view 

carefully  indicated  by,  142. 
Heading,  of  letters,  162,  163,  191;  of 

composition,  338. 
Henry,  Patrick,  quoted,  296. 
Heptameter,  324. 
Hexameter,  324. 
Hiawatha,  quoted,  320,  321,  326,  327; 

scansion  of,  324,  325. 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  quoted,  152. 
How  They  Brought  the  Good  News  from 

Ghent  to  Aix,  quoted,  321. 
Howells,  W.  D.,  quoted,  59. 


Hubbard,  Elbert,  quoted,  217. 
Hughes,  Thomas,  quoted,  145. 
Hugo,  Victor,  quoted,  131,  145. 
Hyde,  William  DeWitt,  quoted,  243. 
Hyperbole,  314. 

Iambus,  defined,  322;  frequency  of, 
322,  327;  interchangeable  with  ana- 
pest,  326;  replaced  by  trochee,  327. 

Idylls  of  the  King,  324. 

Imagery,  familiar,  150,  151. 

Incident,  the  main,  75-81. 

Incident  of  the  French  Camp,  An, 
quoted,  77,  78. 

Indention  of  composition,  337. 

Interrogation,  figure  of,  315;  mark  of, 
see  Punctuation. 

Intimations  of  Immortality,  336. 

Introduction  in  narration,  90,  91,  93; 
in  exposition,  240;  in  argumenta- 
tion, 279-289. 

Inverted  order  in  narration,  66. 

Irony,  315. 

Irrelevant  matter,  281-283. 

Irving,  Washington,  order  of  events  in 
The  Spectre  Bridegroom  by,  65,  66, 
88;  beginning  of  The  Legend  of  Sleepy 
Hollow  by,  77;  as  a  teller  of  stories 
in  the  tbird  person,  85;  movement 
in  stories  of,  96;  quoted,  110,  115, 
127,  129,  138,  205,  212;  comparisons 
as  used  by,  149,  152. 

Ivy  Green,  The,  quoted,  326. 

Jackanapes,  plot  of,  83,  85. 
Jewett,  S.  O.,  quoted,  138. . 
Johnston,  Mary,  quoted,  122,  123. 
Jordan,  David  Starr,  quoted,  242. 
Julius  CoBsar,  plot  of,  67. 

Kidnapped,  quoted,  63,  85. 

Kind,  errors  connected  with  use  of,  13, 

14. 
King  Lear,  quoted,  122,  157. 

Lady  of  the  Lake,  The,  quoted,  320. 

Lamb,  Charles,  quoted,  244. 

Language,  in  narration,  63,  64;  in  de- 
scription, 105-107,  117,  118;  force 
and  vividness  in,  101-103 ;  figurative, 
153. 

Lee,  Jennette,  quoted,  147. 

Le  Gallienne,  Richard,  quoted,  309.  • 

Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow,  The,  69,  77, 
85,  96,  150,  152. 

Lemaltre,  Jules,  quoted,  124. 

Length,  of  sentences,  96,  97;  of  para- 
graphs, 100, 169, 170;  of  description, 
'      108-110,  123,  124. 


350 


INDEX 


Lea  MisSrables,  quoted,  131. 

Letters,  parts  of,  162;  heading  in,  162, 
163,  191;  address  in,  163,  164,  191; 
punctuation  of,  163,  164,  201;  salu- 
tation in,  164, 191;  body  of,  165;  com- 
plimentary close  in,  165,  191;  signa- 
ture in,  166;  forms  of,  166,  172,  173, 
175-177,  180,  184-186,  194-196; 
business,  167-170;  of  application, 
170-174;  of  recommendation,  174- 
176;  of  introduction,  176-179;  order- 
ing goods,  179-181;  of  complaint, 
181-183;  requesting  payment,  183- 
187;  of  friendship,  187-193;  society, 
193-196;  folding  of,  198,  199;  super- 
scription of,  199-201.  See  also  Notes. 

Lewes,  George  Henry,  quoted,  213. 

Like,  incorrect  use  of,  30. 

Likeness,  figures  based  upon,  311-313. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  quoted,  60,  61,  287. 

Literal  language,  309. 

Lochinvar,  quoted,  321. 

Locksley  Hall,  325. 

London  Times,  quoted,  115,  116. 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  proportion  of  verbs 
in  The  Notary  of  Perigueux  by,  97; 
as  a  user  of  figurative  language,  152, 
153,  311;  Hiawatha  quoted,  320,  321, 
326,  327;  quoted,  321;  substitution 
of  feet  in  Evangeline,  3227. 

Look,  adjective  to  be  used  with,  26. 

Lorna  Doone,  quoted,  131. 

Lowell.  J.  R.,  quoted,  107,  108, 151, 203; 
as  a  user  of  figurative  language,  152. 

Lyric  poetry,  331,  332. 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  quoted,  60,  205,  206, 
207,  208,  214,  215,  217,  244,  246, 
247;  on  abstractions,  218,  219;  bal- 
anced sentences  used  by,  260. 

Main  incident,  the,  75-81. 

Main  issues,  the.  285,  286. 

Man  Without  a  Country,  The,  plot  of, 
67. 

Margin  of  composition,  337. 

Marjorie  Daw,  plot  of,  67. 

Marks  for  correction  of  compositions, 
338,  339. 

Marmion,  situation  at  opening  of,  77; 
order  of  events  in,  88;  scansion  of, 
324;  quoted,  325. 

Marvel,  Ike,  quoted,  146, 

Mass,  68,  71;  in  sentences,  71,  72;  in 
narration,  71,  76;  in  description,  132, 
136;  in  exposition,  231,  237-248;  in 
argumentation,  303,  304. 

Material,  selection  of,  in  description, 
115-125;  arrangement  of,  in  descrip- 
tion, 125-142;  selection  of,  in  exposi- 


tion, 222-227;  arrangement  of,   in 

exposition,  227-237. 
Maupassant,  Guy,  length  of  sentences 

by,  97;  quoted,  113, 
May,  correct  use  of,  21, 
Merchant  of  Venice,  The,  meter  in,  325. 
Metaphor,  153,  312, 
Meter,  determining  the,  330,    See  aho 

Verse  forms. 
Metonymy,  314. 
Metrical  romance,  the,  331. 
Might,  correct  use  of,  21. 
Mill  on  the  Floss,  The,  plot  of,  67. 
Mitford,  M.  R.,  quoted,  187-189. 
Monometer,  323. 
Mood,  in  description,  116.  117,  121- 

124. 
Movement  in  stories,  95-98. 
My  Heart  'a  in  the  Highlands,  quoted, 

326. 

Narration,  defined,  55.  56.  62;  lan- 
guage suited  to,  63,  64,  101-103; 
sequence  of  events  in,  64-66;  plot  in, 
66.  67;  movement  in,  95;  paragraphs 
in,  100,  143.  145;  use  of  words  in, 
101-103. 

Narrative  poetry.  330.  331. 

Neither,  verb  in  connection  with,  14; 
with  nor,  30. 

Newcomer,  A.  G..  quoted.  213. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  quoted.  Ill,  122, 
131,  137,  259. 

Nicholas  Nickleby,  quoted,  143. 

Nor,  with  neither  30. 

Notary  of  Perigueux,  The,  proportion 
of  verbs  in,  97. 

Notes,  of  invitation,  acceptance,  and 
regret,  193-196. 

Noun  clauses,  37. 

Nouns,  as  descriptive  words,  155. 

Nuttall,  G.  Clarke,  quoted,  247. 

Observation,  value  of,  112,  113. 
Obverse,  the,  paragraph  of,  147-149; 

use  of,  in  exposition.  207.  208. 
Octameter,  324. 
Ode,  the,  332. 
Of,  incorrect  uses  of,  21,  29. 
Old  Manse,  The,  quoted,  116.  119,  120. 

122;  paragraphs  in,  142. 
Omission  of  syllables  in  verse,  329,  330. 
One,  agreement  of  verb  with,  14. 
Only,  correct  use  of.  27. 
Or,  with  either,  30. 
Order,  of  events  in  narration,  64-66, 

87-95;  of  details  in  description.  137- 

140;    of   sentences,   249.    260.     See 

Arrangement. 


INDEX 


351 


Orders  for  goods,  letters  containing, 

179-181. 
Ought,  incorrect  use  of,  21. 
Our  New  Neighbors  at  Pon,kapog,  climax 

in,  66,  83. 
Outline,  use  of  an,  89, 100;  of  an  essay, 

227-234. 

Painting  and  language,  105-107,  117, 
118. 

Palmer,  G.  H.,  quoted,  220,  221. 

Paradise  Lost,  meter  of,  324. 

Paragraph,  the,  of  conversation,  49; 
mass  in,  71,  72,  237,  238;  in  narra- 
tion, 100,  143,  145;  in  description, 
142-151;  a  single  topic,  142-145;  of 
details,  145,  146;  of  the  obverse, 
147-149;  of  comparisons,  149-151; 
in  letters,  169,  170;  in  exposition, 
234-237;  opening  essay,  242;  closing 
essay,  246;  coherence  in,  249-263;  of 
transition,  263. 

Parallel  construction,  255-260,  304. 

Pentameter,  324. 

Period.  See  Punctuation. 

Personification,  313. 

Persuasion,  defined,  55,  56;  in  argu- 
mentation, 271,  305. 

Phrases,  punctuation  of,  36;  position 
of,  72. 

Pictures,  unity  in,  69;  language  and, 
105-107;  selection  of  details  for, 
117,  118. 

Pilgrim's  Progress,  an  allegory,  313. 

Pitt,  William,  quoted,  60. 

Plan,  value  of  a,  228-230. 

Plot,  66,  67,  99. 

Poe,  E.  A.,  length  of  sentences  in  The 
Qold  Bug  by,  97;  his  choice  of  words, 
102;  quoted,  128,  133;  his  Annabel 
Lee  quoted,  328. 

Poetry,  origin  of,  325;  kinds  of,  330- 
332.   See  Verse  forms. 

Point  of  view,  in  description,  115;  the 
physical,  115,  116;  the  mental,  116, 
117. 

Position,  in  description,  125-138. 

Predicate,  defined,  2;  kinds  of,  2,  3; 
verb  in,  4. 

Prepositions,  use  of,  28-30. 

Presentation  of  argument,  301-303. 

Principles  of  structure.  68-75,  303- 
306. 

Proctor,  Richard  A.,  quoted,  292,  293. 

Pronouns,  relative,  agreement  of  verb 
with,  14;  incorrect  forms  of,  16,  17; 
coherence  obtained  by  use  of,  252, 
304. 

Proof,  direct,  289-294. 


Proportion,  in  description,  136-140;  in 
argumentation,  304. 

Proposition,  method  of  explaining  a, 
204-217  ;  in  argumentation,  275- 
278. 

Punctuation,  marks  of  final,  6,  33,  34; 
need  of,  33;  by  comma,  34-43;  by 
semicolon,  43-47;  by  colon,  47,  48; 
of  quotations,  48,  49;  by  dash,  50; 
in  letters,  163, 164;  of  superscription, 
201. 

Purpose  of  an  author,  57;  in  descrip- 
tion, 121-124. 

Question  mark.  See  Punctuation. 
Quotation  marks.   See  Punctuation. 
Quotations,  punctuation  of,  40,  41;  of 
conversation,  49. 

Raven,  The,  meter  of,  325. 
Recollect,  incorrect  use  of  with,  29. 
Refutation,  294-299. 
Remember,  incorrect  use  of  of  with,  29. 
Repetition,  use  of,  in  exposition,  210- 

212;   coherence  obtained  by,  250- 

252,  304. 
Repplier,  Agnes,  quoted,  59,  60,  130, 

244. 
Rhythm.  See  Verse  forms. 
Richards,  E.  L.,  quoted,  286.    "^ 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  quoted,  127. 
Robinson  Crusoe,  plot  of,  67. 
Ruskin,  John,  quoted,  214,  215,  310. 

Salutation  in  letters,  164,  191. 

Scale  of  treatment,  225-227. 

Scansion,  325,  330. 

Scott,  Walter,  beginning  of  Marmion 
by,  77;  order  of  events  in  Marmion 
by,  88;  introductory  chapters  of,  88, 
89;  quoted,  140,  320,  325. 

Seashore,  The,  quoted,  235. 

Seem,  adjective  to  be  used  with,  26. 

Selection  of  material,  in  description, 
115-125;  in  exposition,  222-227. 

Semicolon.   See  Punctuation. 

Sentence,  the,  defined,  2,  6;  verb  in, 
4-7;  capital  letter  beginning,  6;  final 
punctuation  of,  6;  unity  of,  6-10; 
compound,  8-10;  complex,  10;  order 
of,  in  paragraph,  72;  length  of,  as 
affecting  movement,  96,  97;  topic, 
143 ;  coherence  in,  249, 250;  balanced, 
259,  260;  of  transition,  263;  periodic, 
loose,  see  Mass  in  sentence. 

Sentence  structure,  figures  based  upon, 
314,  315. 

Sequence  of  events.  See  Order  of 
Events. 


352 


INDEX 


Shakespeare,  William,  plot  of  Julius 
CcBsar  by,  67;  quoted,  122,  157. 

Shall  and  unll,  correct  uses  of,  18-20. 

Should  and  would,  correct  uses  of ,  18-20. 

Signature  of  letters,  166. 

Silas  Mamer,  plot  of,  66;  time  covered 
by,  99. 

Simile,  153,  312. 

Sincerity  in  Argument,  305,  306. 

Smell,  adjective  to  be  used  with,  26. 

Smiles,  Samuel,  quoted,  242. 

Solecisms.  11. 

Song,  the,  331. 

Sonnet,  the,  332. 

Sort,  errors  connected  with  use  of,  13, 
14. 

Sound,  adjective  to  be  used  with,  26. 

Spectre  Bridegroom,  The,  main  incident 
of,  75;  order  of  events  in,  65,  66,  88. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  quoted,  297,  298, 
300. 

Spenser,  Edmund,  his  Faerie  Queene, 
an  allegory,  313;  quoted,  328. 

Spondee,  323. 

Stanza,  323. 

Stelzle,  Charles,  quoted,  280. 

Stevenson,  R.  L.,  his  Kidnapped 
quoted,  63;  plot  of  Treasure  Island 
by,  67;  as  a  teller  of  stories  in  the 
first  person,  85;  his  use  of  words, 
101,  155,  156;  on  length  of  descrip- 
tions, 123;  quoted,  128. 

Story,  the,  62;  language  suited  to,  63, 
64;  sequence  of  events  in,  64-66; 
plot  of,  66,  67;  the  main  incident  in, 
75-81;  what  shall  go  into,  81-84; 
the  unexpected  in  the,  82,  83,  89; 
who  ehall  tell,  84-87;  in  what  order 
shall,  be  told,  87-95;  movement  in, 
95-98;  nxmaber  of  characters  in,  98; 
time  of  action  of,  98;  plot  of,  99; 
paragraphs  of,  100. 

Subject,  defined,  2;  vs.  theme  and  title, 
217-219. 

Suggestive  and  enumerative  descrip- 
tion, 108-115. 

Siimmaries,  use  of,  263-265,  299,  304, 
305. 

Superlatives,  use  of,  156. 

Superscription  of  letters,  199-201. 

Syllables,  in  verse,  extra,  328,  329; 
omission  of;  329,  330.  See  Verse 
forms. 

Synecdoche,  313  n. 

Tale,  the,  331. 

Tale  of  Two  Cities,  A,  plot  of,  67;  told 

in  the  third  person,  85;  quoted,  132, 

165. 


Taste,  adjective  to  be  used  with,  26. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  quoted,  107,  330. 

Terms,  definition  of,  244,  245,  280. 
See  Words. 

Tetrameter,  324. 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,  the  plot  of  Vanity 
Fair  by,  66;  his  use  of  weak  super- 
lative, 157;  quoted,  311. 

Them,  for  those,  27. 

Theme,  219,  220,  242,  246. 

Three  Years  She  Grew  in  Sun  and 
Shower,  quoted,  326. 

Time  of  action,  98. 

Title,  selection  of,  220,  221;  in  address, 
164;  writing  of,  338. 

Topic,  controlling  paragraphing,  143. 

Topic  cards,  228. 

Topic  sentence,  143-145,  205,  238. 

Tragedy,  332. 

Transitions,  263-265,  304,  305. 

Treasure  Island,  plot  of,  67. 

Trimeter,  324. 

Trochee,  defined,  322;  dactyl  inter- 
changeable with,  326, 327;  in  place  of 
iambus,  327. 

Try  and,  31. 

Unity,  of  sentences,  6-10;  in  narration, 
68-70;  in  description,  115-123;  in 
exposition,  222-225,  234-236;  in 
argumentation,  303. 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  quoted,  139,  148, 
214,  250,  257. 

Vanity  Fair,  plot  of,  66. 

Verb,  in  predicate,  2-4;  agreement 
of,  11-16;  forms,  17-26;  in  narra- 
tion, 97,  101;  as  descriptive  word, 
156. 

Verboeckhoven,  painter,  117. 

Verse,  kinds  of,  323-325;  defined,  323; 
variations  in,  325-330. 

Verse  forms,  320-336. 

Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,  The,  107,  151. 

Waived  matter,  281-283. 

Warner,  C.  D.,  quoted,  140. 

Webster,  Daniel,  quoted,  61,  299. 

Will  and  shall,  correct  uses  of,  18-20. 

Winchester,  Caleb  T.,  quoted,  245. 

Without,  incorrect  use  of,  30. 

Words,  choice  of,  in  narration,  101- 
103;  descriptive,  155;  choice  of,  in 
description,  155-157;  need  for  defin- 
ing, 244,  245,  280. 

Wordsworth,  William,  Intimations  of 
Immortality  by,  336. 

Would  and  should,  correct  uses  of,  18- 
20. 


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DEC    3  1934 
APK    22  1335 
JUL  18  1935 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


